Mrs. John Nicholson (Hannah Duncan) and John Nicholson, Jr.

1790

Charles Willson Peale
American, 1741–1827

Charles Willson Peale was a prominent figure in the cultural and scientific life of Philadelphia in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He established his own museum dedicated to the arts and natural sciences and helped found the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1805. Mrs. John Nicholson (Hannah Duncan) and John Nicholson, Jr. is a tender portrait of mother and child. The natural backdrop and sprig of flowers in the boy’s hand signal a domestic bond. Mrs. Nicholson’s uncorseted dress and freely coiffed hair (without a wig) likewise speak to the humanistic ideals of the Enlightenment.

Status: On View, Gallery 168
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Charles Willson Peale
Title: Mrs. John Nicholson (Hannah Duncan) and John Nicholson, Jr.
Place: Philadelphia (Place depicted)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1790
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed and dated, lower right: "CWPeale/Painted 1790."
Dimensions: 91.5 × 69.3 cm (36 × 27 5/16 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Carter H. Harrison
Reference Number: 1952.1001
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/78507/manifest.json

Charles Coleman Sellers, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 59 (1969), p. 74.
Edgar P. Richardson, (Abrams, Inc., 1982), cat. no. 158, p. 216 ill.
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Art Institute of Chicago, 1998).

Art Institute of Chicago, Two Centuries of American Art, 1750-1950, Oct. 1, 1959–Jan. 10, 1960, no cat. [downloadable checklist available].
Washington, DC, National Portrait Gallery, Charles Willson Peale and His World, Nov. 4, 1982–Jan. 2, 1983, no. 158, cat. by Edgar P. Richardson, p. 216 ill.; Fort Worth, Amon Carter Museum, Feb. 11–Apr. 3, 1982; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, June 6–Sept. 4, 1983.

Hannah Duncan Nicholson, 1790; by descent to John Nicholson, Jr. and wife, Anne Galbreth, 1823; by descent to Frances Sophia Duncan Nicholson (John Jr.’s daughter) and husband, Hon. Robert N. Ogden, 1848; by descent to the Ogden family 1893. Mr. and Mrs. Carter H. Harrison, Jr., Chicago, by 1952; given by them to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1952.

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Mrs. John Nicholson (Hannah Duncan) and John Nicholson, Jr.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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