Lot 287: James Peale, Sr. (1749-1831), circa 1830

James Peale, Sr. (1749-1831), circa 1830
The Tables Turned
with engraved reproduction of painting on verso and label inscribed Owner: Karl Free/Please Return to 14 w 8st/NYC
oil on canvas
16 x 33¾ in.

Karl Free, New York

VARIOUS PROPERTIES

While James Peale, Sr. is traditionally known for his still life paintings, portraits, and landscapes, this scene, a gruesome depiction of wild animals engaged in the killing and cooking of a hunter and his faithful dogs, adds another dynamic to his oeuvre. He received artistic training from his older brother, Charles Willson Peale (1741-1822) and worked alongside Charles in his studio in Philadelphia. James probably executed The Tables Turned at the end of his life during what Schwartz has deemed the "final stage of James landscape work [which] shows dramatic scenes in which he contemplates man's place in nature" (Robert Devlin Schwartz, A Gallery Collects Peales, (Philadelphia, 1987), p. 56). An apotheosis of this period of his work, this painting describes the concept of man's place in nature as a "mute observer of forces beyond his control" (Edward J. Nygen, Views and Visions, p. 74 quoted in Schwartz, p. 56). Further indicative of his late work, the tight handling found in his earlier compositions has loosened into a freer and more fluid expression (Linda Crocker Simmons, "James Peale," in Lillian B. Miller, ed., The Peale Family (New York, 1996), p. 217).