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Charles Willson Peale portrait

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(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1741-1829), half portrait of Edward Burd (1751-1833), circa 1820, inscription verso translated to liner "Mr. Edward Burd. Painted for Mrs. E. Peale./By C.W. Peale…For Miss Burd during her life./E. Peale/1851", verso stretcher on label in script "Edward Burd, son of Col. James Bu[rd] of …inian/Painted by Chas. W. Peale as a wedding present to mother. Given to Edward B. Peale/Mary J. Peale", oil on canvas, 28-1/2 x 23-1/4 in.; possibly original gilt wood and composition frame with egg-and-dart decoration. Restretched on original stretcher; lined with linen, crackle, frame abrasions, craquelure, stretcher marks, retouch at bottom edge and scattered at other edges, to left and right of face and in background; frame resurfaced, abrasions. Provenance: This important Charles Willson Peale portrait of Edward Burd descended in the Peale and Morris families of Philadelphia. Charles Coleman Sellers, in his monograph on the artist, lists the portrait as unlocated and it has not been offered for sale since it returned to the Morris family in 1937. Edward Burd (1751-1833) studied law with Chief Justice Edward Shippen and married Shippen's daughter Elizabeth. Sellers notes that "Jean Burd, a sister of Edward, married George Patterson, the father of William Augustus and Eliza Burd Patterson. These last in turn married Peale's daughter, Elizabeth DePeyster, and his son Rubens". According to an inscription on the back of the picture, Peale painted this portrait of her uncle as a wedding present for Rubens' wife. The couple were married March 6, 1820. Peale wrote to his son, Raphaelle, January 14, 1821, that he had retouched the picture to make 'the coloring not so hard'. It was exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1822 and hung for a while in Peale's Museum, New York, where Rubens simply needed something to fill up space on the walls. Not being a part of the regular collection, it was retained by the family when that institution passed into the hands of P.T. Barnum. The consigner's family notes record that on the death of Rubens Peale, the painting was left by Rubens and Eliza Peale to their son Edward B. Peale and by him to his son Rubens H. Peale. On April 29, 1925, Mr. John F. Braun of Marian, Pennsylvania, purchased the painting (his wife was distantly related to the Peales). In April 1937 the portrait was bought from Mr. Braun by Mary Grubb Smith Morris, a direct descendant of both the Burd and Shippen families. In March of 1945 the portrait was given by her to a nephew, Heber Smith Morris. Reserve: $30,000 Accompanied by Charles Coleman Sellers, [Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale,] American Philosophical Society, 1952, catalog No. 91; Charles Sellers, [Charles Willson Peale: Early Life,] American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1947; Lily Nixon, [Pennsylvania Lives; James Burd,] University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1941; family documents concerning portrait accompany lot.

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