Gross – Found in [GW] Collection

November 7, 2023June 5, 2024

Margaretta Peale

Last week President Ellen Granberg was officially inaugurated. In recognition of this historic moment please enjoy this piece from the archives discussing the portraits of some of our past presidents done by Margaretta Peale in the 19th century. President Granberg is GW’s 19th president and first female and openly LGBTQ president. We hope to see GW grow and improve under her leadership!

This post was was written by former Gallery Assistant Maria Gorbaty. It was originally published on the former Luther W. Brady Art Gallery “Found in Collection” Blog in March 2017.

Portrait of Anna and Margaretta Peale — James Peale, Anna and Margaretta Peale, ca. 1805. Oil on canvas, 29 x 24 in. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA.

Margaretta Peale (1785-1882) comes from a prominent family of painters. Her uncle, Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827), is probably the most famous in the Peale family. Charles Willson Peale is known for his portraiture of prominent figures, and also establishing the Philadelphia Museum, one of the first museums in America. Some of Charles Willson Peale’s sons (Margaretta’s cousins) continued in the family business of painting. They are notable for their still lifes and portraits, as well as their unusual names – Rembrandt, Raphaelle, and Titian – names of some of Charles Willson Peale’s favorite artists. [1]

Margaretta’s father, James Peale (1749-1831), was the younger brother of Charles Willson Peale. He was taught how to paint by his older brother and also worked in his studio. James Peale is most notable for his still lifes and miniature paintings. [2] He had six children, most famously Margaretta and her sisters Anna Claypoole Peale (1791-1878) and Sarah Miriam Peale (1800-1885). Margaretta’s sisters were acclaimed female painters of their time and became the first women members of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), which was the first arts academy in America. They were also among the first women to professionally paint for a living. [3] While Margaretta was not a member of PAFA, she still had the honor of exhibiting her work at the academy. Today Margaretta’s legacy is still overshadowed by that of her sisters, however this is most likely due to the fact that many of her paintings no longer exist.

Still life of strawberries and cherries by Margaretta Peale — Margaretta Peale, Strawberries and
Cherries, n.d. Oil on canvas, 10-1/16
x 12-1/8 in. Pennsylvania Academy
of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA.

Although Margaretta Peale was most known for her still life paintings, George Washington University owns five of her portrait paintings – possibly the only ones that are still in existence. The portraits are of William Staughton, Stephen Chapin, William Ruggles and Joseph Getchell Binney (the fifth portrait is an unidentified sitter). These four men all were presidents of the Columbian College, known today as George Washington University.

William Staughton was the first president of the college from 1821-1827. Margaretta was commissioned in 1866 to paint this portrait from her cousin Rembrandt’s portrait of Staughton (Staughton’s portrait by Margaretta is currently in the General Counsel’s office). Staughton had close ties with the Peale family presumably because he knew the Peale family while he lived in Philadelphia as a Baptist Minister, and later he became Margaretta’s brother-in-law. Anna Claypoole Peale was the second wife of Staughton and married him in August 1829, unfortunately that same year he died. [4] A portrait of William Staughton painted by James Peale in 1811 is also owned by GWU and can be found next to Margaretta’s portrait of Stephen Chapin in a small gallery in Gelman Library on the first floor.

Stephen Chapin was the second President of the Columbian College from 1828-1841. This portrait, painted around 1868, was commissioned by the Board of Trustees for the University. The board asked Margaretta to paint the portrait of Dr. Chapin from a likeness of his portrait owned by William Ruggles.

Portrait of former President Staughton by Margaretta Peale — Margaretta Peale, *William Staughton, D.D.*, n.d.
Oil on canvas. The George Washington University
Permanent Collection.

Portrait of former President Chapin by Margaretta Peale — Margaretta Peale, *Stephen Chapin, D.D.*, c.1868.
Oil on canvas. The George Washington
University Permanent Collection.

William Ruggles was never officially a president of the University, but served as an acting president three times from 1822-1877 during his years as a GWU faculty member. [5] Ruggles was a very influential person at the University, and holds the record of the longest consecutive period of teaching at GWU. Ruggles’s portrait is currently in the Lenthall Townhouses.

Joseph Getchell Binney was the fourth President of GWU from 1855-1858, and his portrait can be found in the the School of Media and Public Affairs at the George Washington University. His portrait was recently on view in our exhibition The Other 90%.

Portrait of former President Ruggles by Margaretta Peale — Margaretta Peale, *William Ruggles*, n.d. Oil on
canvas. The George Washington University
Permanent Collection.

Portrait of former President Binney by Margaretta Peale — Margaretta Peale, Joseph Getchell Binney, D.D. (Doctor of Divinity), n.d. Oil on canvas. The George Washington University Permanent Collection.

Portrait of Unidentified Sitter by Margaretta Peale — Margaretta Peale, Unidentified sitter, ca. 1868. Oil on canvas. The George Washington University Permanent Collection.

[1] http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/
[2] http://americanart.si.edu/
[3] https://nmwa.org
[4] https://library.gwu.edu/ead/ms0311.xml
[5] http://library.gwu.edu/ead/rg0002.xml#ref1109

October 31, 2023June 5, 2024

Paranormal Problems?

Spot any supernatural occurrences on campus lately? Witness any paranormal activity during your lectures? Ghost problems at your residence hall? Who you gonna call? Does Ghostbusters immediately come to mind, or the crew of Ghost Adventures? Think again. Artist, sculptor, and draughtswoman, Alice Aycock, can come to your rescue.

Alice Aycock’s captivation with the many ghosts that inhabit contemporary work that involve technology, physics, and the contrast between mind and body, led her to create the site-specific sculpture, How to Catch and Manufacture Ghosts: Collected Ghost Stories from the Workhouse. Aycock was inspired by devices and apparatus found in history books from the 18^th and 19^th centuries and claims that her piece is “…her interpretation of the history of invention…”[1] Although Aycock’s device constructed of metal, glass, steel and wood was dismantled in the early 1990s, if you are having problems with the paranormal, a number of prints and drawings were created that document the work and its process with diagrams and quotes, and one drawing is a part of the GW Collection.

Pencil and ink sketch of Aycock's sculpture, How to Catch and Manufacture Ghosts. — Alice Aycock, *A Spinning and Dunking Device from How to Catch and Manufacture Ghosts*, 1980, ink and pencil on mylar. Gift of Shirlee and Howard Friedenberg, 1986 (P.86.13.2). *© The Artist or the Artist’s Estate*

Aycock’s medium of work ranges from architectural drawings to sculptures to photo documentation. Growing up with a father who owned a construction company influenced Aycock’s interest in constructing sculptures and creating drawings based off of architecture. As an artist, she strives to create a transcendental experience for her audiences and what she calls the “glance of eternity”, an allusion to Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of eternal return. In an interview with White Hot Magazine, Aycock expands on this, by stating that art that has this effect on you keeps you coming back to revisit the piece. [2] She compares it to that gasping moment one experiences when a wave comes in and takes you under. If you are interested in experiencing the “glance of eternity,” you can find her works in many collections aside from the GW Permanent Collection, such as the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. She also has public works displayed in various locations throughout the United States, among them are New York, Washington D.C. and Sacramento.

If you are in need of a remedy for your supernatural snag, Alice Aycock has you covered. Despite the sculpture of her work, How to Catch and Manufacture Ghosts: Collected Ghost Stories from the Workhouse, no longer being in existence, her drawing can provide you with detailed insights on how to take care of your pesky paranormal problems. With that said, put down your cellphone and your television remote! Forget about the outrageous and bizarre methods used by the Ghostbusters and the crew of Ghost Adventures and instead take a few pointers from Alice Aycock’s print to resolve any supernatural occurrences you may face on campus!

This post was was written by former Gallery Assistant Taylor Schmidt (BA 2017). It was originally published on the former Luther W. Brady Art Gallery “Found in Collection” Blog in October 2013 and is the first of a number of previous posts we will be highlighting “From the Archives”.

Happy Halloween!

[1] Alice Aycock. Institute for Research in Art at the University of Southern Florida.

[2] Nietzche’s concept of eternal return is the idea that events recur again and again infinitely. Aycock notes this concept in hopes that her art has an eternal return impact on her audienc

October 17, 2023October 24, 2023

Sidney Goodman’s The Pool

As the leaves continue to change color and the weather gets chilly, here at the Luther W. Brady Gallery we have been enjoying the start of fall and looking forward to Halloween! But if you have been having trouble getting into the spooky spirit (and even if you haven’t), this painting in the GW Collection (which has been exhibited multiple times at both the Dimock and Brady Art Galleries!) will certainly give you the chills.

Painting of 4 figures around a pool. Mostly dark sky with trees and wall behind and pool in foreground. — Sidney Goodman, *The Pool*, 1965, oil on canvas. Gift of Dr. Louis Wener, 1969 (P.68.6). © The Artist or the Artist’s Estate

In 1965, Sidney Goodman completed his eerie oil painting, The Pool. At first glance, you may think this painting seems more like a summer scene than a fall, but look closer! You will notice it is filled with figures who appear to be not quite human. The man in the pool has only his head above the water with blurry shapes instead of eyes. At the table another man is sitting still and staring forward at the viewer with an empty expression. The lifeguard is perched on the tower with her face cloaked in shadows. And perhaps most unsettling is the woman in the chair who has no head, but still seems to be reading. Pitch blackness stretches out behind all of them, giving the scene a contradictory mood as the lighting at the pool appears to imply it is the middle of the day.

The artist of this piece, Sidney Goodman, was an American realist painter who rose to prominence in the 1960s. He was born in 1936 in Philadelphia and was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. Goodman attended the Philadelphia College of the Arts before enlisting in the army for a year and then taking up a career teaching art in universities. All the while he continued to paint and test out more experimental themes and styles in his works. He was well-known for both figure and landscape paintings done in the American Realist style which he often imbued with a metaphysical quality. This month is the perfect time to explore more of his works which have been described “disturbing” and “apocalyptic.” Goodman himself said about his work that “I sometimes paint a realistic picture in order to justify logically something unreal.” And this quality of his work is clearly on display in The Pool.

As viewers, we are drawn into the painting under the impression that it is a normal scene of a day at the pool. It appears as a mundane moment that many of us have likely experienced before. Only upon closer inspection do we notice the inconsistencies and peculiarities of the picture that give it a sense of unease. The fact that it is these small, less obvious details that give this piece its disturbing tone leads us to pause and reflect on what else goes on around us everyday that we may not notice. Keep an eye out for a glimpse of unreality this month. Happy Halloween!

-Alys Gross (BA ’23)