Lot 25: JAMES PEALE

JAMES PEALE 1749 - 1831 MR. AND MRS. ZACHARIAH POULSON OF PHILADELPHIA; A PAIR OF PORTRAITS oil on canvas each: 36 by 28 in. (91.4 by 71.1 cm.) Painted in 1808

"Important Recent Acquisitions," The Kennedy Quarterly, vol. 2, no. 1, 1960, p. 35, both illustrated p. 34

Kennedy Galleries, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1965

In 1800, Zachariah Poulson (1761-1844) purchased Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser, the successor to America's first daily newspaper, the Pennsylvania Packet. Although the portrait of Mr. Poulson is unsigned in the traditional sense, the newspaper he holds contains an advertisement that reads "James Peale / No. 69 / Lombard Street / Paints Portraits / In Oils And Miniature / Oct. 29, 1808." Adjacent to this advertisement is one for the museum run by James' brother, Charles Willson Peale.