On view
American Art
Wilmerding Pavilion
Sarah Shaw Anschutz Gallery
Wilmerding Pavilion
Sarah Shaw Anschutz Gallery
Elias Boudinot IV,
1784
Charles Willson Peale, 1741–1827; born Chester, MD; died Philadelphia, PA
Elias Boudinot IV, American, 1740–1821
Elias Boudinot IV, American, 1740–1821
y1954-266
Peale’s portraits of Elias Boudinot IV and his wife, Hannah Stockton Boudinot, reflect aspects of their biographies: he clutches a document titled “Proclamation of Peace with Great Britain / 1783,” the provisional peace treaty with England that he had signed as president of the Continental Congress. Hannah holds open a copy of the Scottish poet James Thomson’s The Seasons (1730), signifying her alignment with the Scotch Presbyterians then prevalent in Princeton, where she was raised, and its college. Peale’s portrayal of Hannah as a passive reader, elaborately dressed for display—compared to her more inconspicuously attired husband, shown engaged with matters of state—both reflects and reinforces period assumptions about gender.
Information
Title
Elias Boudinot IV
Dates
1784
Maker
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
76 × 63.5 cm (29 15/16 × 25 in.)
frame: 89.9 × 77.2 × 6.7 cm (35 3/8 × 30 3/8 × 2 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Landon K. Thorne for the Boudinot Collection
Object Number
y1954-266
Place Made
North America, United States
Culture
Type
Subject
Acquired by Landon Ketchum Thorne (1888-1964) and Julia (Loomis) Thorne (1890-1974) by 1954; donated to the Princeton University Art Museum, 1954.
- Carl E. Prince et. al., The papers of William Livingston, (Trenton, NJ: New Jersey Historical Commission, 1979-1988)., vol. 1: p. 130 (illus.)
- Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986), p. 83
- Cathy Coho, Anne Gossen, Thomas Heller and Karl Kusserow, "The Boudinot sofas: s rare matched pair of Federal Era seating furniture", Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 70 (2011): p. 46-55., p. 49, fig. 6
