Mrs. John Nicholson (Hannah Duncan) and John Nicholson, Jr.

Charles Willson Peale · 1790

Medium

Oil on canvas

Original size

91.5 × 69.3 cm (36 × 27 5/16 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Neoclassicism

This intimate double portrait of Hannah Duncan Nicholson and her young son captures the quiet tenderness that Charles Willson Peale brought to domestic subjects with particular skill. Peale was the preeminent portraitist of Revolutionary-era America, responsible for some of the most enduring likenesses of the Founding generation — he painted George Washington from life on multiple occasions. His technique favoured clear, even light and a directness of gaze that lent his subjects a psychological presence without theatricality. In this 1790 work, the soft modelling of Hannah's face and the natural arrangement of mother and child reflect his mature command of intimate portraiture, where warmth and precision coexist without strain. Peale was also a naturalist and museum founder, and his habit of careful observation carried directly into his painting: flesh tones are rendered with the same attentiveness he gave to specimens in his famous Philadelphia museum. Now held at the Art Institute of Chicago, the original remains a fine example of American portraiture at the close of the eighteenth century. This hand-painted oil reproduction faithfully recreates Peale's handling of light and texture, giving the work the presence it was always meant to carry — painted surface, layered colour, and all.