Perhaps today, you’ve come to admire paintings at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. As you walk down a hallway, you see two boys walking up a stairway, and you want to follow. You take the first step up. Then you realize you’ll get nowhere on this staircase.
You almost bump your nose against “Staircase Group (Portrait of Raphaelle Peale and Titian Ramsay Peale I),” painted in 1795 by Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827). Possibly the first trompe l’oeil (“trick the eye”) painting by an American artist, Peale’s piece has played a joke on many who want to take a closer look.
The full-length figures in the painting are portraits of two of the artist’s four sons, Raphaelle and Titian, who are named after famous artists of the Renaissance. Most portraits in Western art of that time were full-length portraits of important people: members of the European aristocracy or leaders of church and state.
In the United States, the important people were the common people of the new nation, which is hinted at by the original title of the painting: “Whole Length–Portraits of Two of His Sons on a Staircase.” The artist tells the viewer that important people were the sons and daughters of the settlers and colonists, not kings and queens.
Peale presents a dynamic scene. His boys are on the move, and by presenting his children in the “Staircase Group,” he signaled a new direction for art in the young country. Just as the figures climb up, Peale seems to say that American artists were on the rise.
The young men turn as if their father is calling out, “Hey, turn around, boys!” The boys look at their father mid-step. Another step by Titian at the top, and he would have disappeared up the stairs as the staircase curves around to the left.
Raphaelle, the young man below, holds a brush and palette in the “Staircase Group.” Although still young, Raphaelle was already a successful artist in his own right as a painter of still lifes.
Illusionism
Tromp l’oeil is a technique whereby a painting seems to enter the viewer’s space and that viewer has a hard time figuring out where the space ends and the painting begins. The technique of giving the optical illusion of 3D space on a 2D surface goes back to ancient classical art, where Roman homes would have trompe l’oeil landscapes or still lifes frescoed on the walls.The “Staircase Group” plays on our expectations of real and pictorial space. On the floor just under the frame is a real wooden step. That step seamlessly merges with the rise on the painted surface.
It’s not just the actual step that contributes to the illusion, but also the frame of the painting, which is an actual door jamb in the style of an Early American doorway. In order to construct an authentic frame, conservators visited homes in the Philadelphia area to analyze door frames of colonial American houses. That frame enforces the illusion as it seems to cast a shadow across the face of Peale’s younger son, Titian, as well as the deep shadows on the wallpaper in the background; however, the shadows are created with paint.
The canvas itself was constructed with tromp l’oeil in mind. In a recent conservation effort, the frame was removed to reveal that the canvas had been hand-stapled under and around (not over) its frame in order to keep the illusion of a 3D space on the flat surface.
“I observed that Washington, as he passed it, bowed politely to the painted figures, which he afterward acknowledged he thought were living persons. If this homage bestowed on the pictures was not indicative of its merit, it was, at least, another instance of habitual politeness.”
Others who see the painting, like Washington, think that a space opens up in the wall of the museum with a staircase. When visitors are deceived by an illusory work, it’s natural for them to see for themselves whether the painting is a real space, and they might (when no one is looking, of course) draw their fingers over the canvas in a circular fashion.This has been a challenge for conservation efforts during the restoration process. Restorers have found that when the painting is touched again and again, circular cracks appear (called circular craquelure); this is cracking or dryness caused by extensive touching of the canvas.
Early American Educator
Peale first studied with Early American artist John Singleton Copley. Well-to-do colonial patrons soon recognized the self-taught man’s talent and sent Peale to apprentice with accomplished American painter Benjamin West in London, who generously trained and supported up-and-coming artists from the American colonies.Peale chose to focus on portraits, rather than the history genre paintings favored by West. Peale preferred to pose his clients in a casual, less formal way than was done for most portraits of the day. The figures do not fade into the background; they have clear outlines and are firmly modeled, usually in three-quarter length, as shown in his self-portrait.
Peale returned to the colonies in 1776 and settled in Philadelphia. He made it his mission to paint portraits of the men who were shaping the destiny of the new nation: George Washington (for whom he made several portraits), Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Benjamin Franklin, among others. In 1782, he opened a portrait gallery of Revolutionary heroes.
A Bright Future
Peale’s trompe l’oeil set the stage for others. Later American artists such as William Harnett would follow in Peale’s footsteps and master trompe l’oeil in still lifes, but the “Staircase Group” remains an important symbol of American ascendance in the art world. During a time in the history of a young country ready to do great things, Peale depicted this potential in the lively and energetic stances of his teenage sons.
