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For printable image click here. Wendy Bellion, assistant professor of art history. UD photo by Sarah Simon

Wendy Bellion, assistant professor of art history, delivered the Doris and Harry Rubin Lecture on American Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 16, speaking on “A Ghost Story: Reviving George Washington in the Early 19th Century.” Her talk focused on a portrait of Washington by American artist Rembrandt Peale painted in 1824, a quarter- century after Washington's death.

Being invited to give the lecture was an honor, Bellion said. The Rubin Lectures, held annually since 1988, bring scholars to the Metropolitan to present new research in American art history. Bellion's talk was well-attended, with about 350 persons present, and was followed by a reception at the Temple of Dendur in the Egyptian wing of the museum.

Much of Bellion's research focuses on trompe l'oeil, or the optical illusion of reality in paintings, and Rembrandt Peale's portrait of Washington falls into that category, Bellion said. “It is an idealized portrait and a composite of other portraits of Washington that were done when he was alive. The trompe l'oeil frame is crucial because it helps create the fiction of a living, breathing Washington.

“It was painted at a time of great nostalgia for Washington and the Revolutionary generation, with the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence coming up in 1826 and the Marquis de Lafayette returning to the U.S for a triumphal tour of the country,” she said.

Known as the “porthole portrait,” the painting depicts Washington surrounded by an illusionary masonry frame that is etched with the words “Patriae Pater” (Father of his Country).” The portrait was highly successful and bought by Congress in 1832. Peale himself painted 70 copies or versions of the portrait and also produced a critically acclaimed lithograph.

Bellion is on the faculty of UD's Center for Material Culture Studies and UD/Winterthur Program in American Material Culture. She is a graduate of Wesleyan University and received her master's and doctoral degrees from Northwestern University. She was a National Endowment for the Arts fellow at the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and visiting assistant professor at the College of William and Mary and taught at Rutgers University before coming to UD in 2004.

Media contact: Martin Mbugua, (302) 831-8749, [mbugua@udel.edu]
June 5, 2007