THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART 31 



Institute, and soon thereafter it was removed to and became 

 a part of the museum of that society in the building of the 

 Patent Office. It was valued by Varden at $1,500, but there is 

 no evidence that he was paid for it, the employment of its 

 owner having probably been accepted as a satisfactory equiva- 

 lent. In Varden's catalogue thirty-two art objects are cited by 

 titles and some others are referred to, but among them all, with 

 possibly one or two exceptions, none seems to have had any 

 special artistic merit. Out of seven oil paintings enumerated 

 only the three mentioned below are now identifiable. They 

 were entitled as follows in the catalogue of the Institute: 

 Massacre of the Innocents, Turkish Battle Piece, and Portrait 

 of Cardinal Mazarin, There were also recorded busts in plaster 

 of Washington, Franklin, and John Quincy Adams; and 

 numerous prints, including three engravings attributed to Albert 

 Diirer. 



ANNOTATED LIST OF ART OBJECTS IN THE MUSEUM 

 OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE 



Portraits 



FULL LENGTH PORTRAIT OF WASHINGTON. By Charles Willson 

 Peale. 



According to Mr. Charles Henry Hart, who has given much 

 attention to the subject,** the original of this portrait, painted 

 for the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, from 

 sittings in Philadelphia in the first part of 1778, is in the pos- 

 session of Mr. Thomas McKean, at Fernhill, Germantown, 

 Pennsylvania. The canvas here listed is described by Mr. 

 Hart as one of many repetitions painted by Peale in 1779, 

 which date it bears, as well as the signature of the artist. Its 

 early history has never been satisfactorily explained, but it 

 was evidently sent to Europe to be sold, probably in the same 

 year that it was painted. It was brought back to this country 

 from France by Julius, Count de Menou, from whom it was 

 purchased, in October, 1841, by Mr. Charles B. Calvert, of 



o Peak's Original Whole-length Portrait of Washington — A Plea for 

 Exactness in Historical Writings. Annual Report of the American Histor- 

 ical Association for 1896, pp. 191-200. 



