Hirschl & Adler Galleries

Charles Willson Peale depicted leaders of his day, including heroes of the American Revolution.

The most successful portraitist working in Philadelphia during the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, Charles Willson Peale depicted the leading lights of his day, including heroes of the American Revolution and members of the colonial aristocracy. Known for his egalitarian outlook, Peale also painted likenesses of his friends and neighbors, portraying his subjects, whatever their position in society, in a candid realist style. An energetic man with a strong work ethic and a visionary desire to contribute to the cultural and intellectual fabric of the nation, he also established the country’s first public art gallery and its first museum of natural history. Peale’s unique role in the annals of American art also stems from the fact that he founded a dynasty of talented painters––portrait, figure, and still-life specialists––who carried on his aesthetic principles and his values.

Peale painted likenesses of many military and political figures associated with the War of Independence, among them General David Forman (1745–1797), a man “of great energy ... great bravery, and ... utter fearlessness” who is said to have been the most “influential” person in Monmouth County, New Jersey, during the Revolution. He began his military career in 1775 as a lieutenant colonel in a New Jersey regiment known as Heard’s Brigade, in which he later attained the rank of colonel. By late November 1776––its local government now destabilized by the war––Monmouth County had become an unruly place. Concerned about the increasing number of Tory raiders who were taking up arms, Washington asked Forman to act as a recruiting agent for the army and to apprise him of the positions of British troops. Most importantly, he appointed Forman head of a regiment organized to apprehend “all such persons as from good Information appear to be concerned in any Plot or Design against the liberty or safety of the United States." 

Forman’s actions at the Battle of Monmouth, during which he and General Philemon Dickinson led the Jersey militia, doing everything “in their power to retard Clinton’s advance,” including demolishing bridges and cutting off the enemy’s access to water by filling up wells––secured George Washington's enduring trust and admiration.