Oil on canvas portrait depicting John Wayles Eppes (1773–1823), prominent Virginia statesman, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and later United States Senator. Eppes was the nephew of Thomas Jefferson and married Jefferson’s daughter Maria (“Polly”) Jefferson, placing him within the immediate circle of the Jefferson family and the political leadership of the early American Republic.

The portrait is attributed to Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827), among the most important American painters of the Revolutionary and early Federal periods. Peale, famed for his portraits of George Washington and numerous founders, was also a naturalist, museum founder, and a central figure in the artistic culture of the young nation. His Washington visits during the winter of 1818–1819 were undertaken specifically to paint members of Congress and prominent national figures during the closing years of his career.

The attribution of the present portrait is supported by documentary evidence. Included with the painting is a November 22, 2000 letter from Dr. Ellen G. Miles, Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, stating that the portrait of John Wayles Eppes is “quite clearly by Philadelphia portrait painter Charles Willson Peale,” noting that the painting exhibits the stylistic hallmarks of Peale’s work in modeling, pose, composition, and attention to detail. The curator further notes that the portrait is referenced in Peale’s letters and diaries and appears in Charles Coleman Sellers’ checklist of Peale’s works as an unlocated portrait painted in Washington in 1819.

Supporting documentation from The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family (Yale University Press) further confirms Peale’s presence in Washington during this period and includes diary entries from January 1819 referencing “Mr. Eppes” and describing arrangements for sittings with members of Congress while Peale was painting portraits in the capital. These contemporary references strongly correspond with the historical context in which the present portrait would have been executed.

The portrait remained within an extended southern political family network after Eppes’ death. The first recorded owner after the sitter was Thomas Mutter Blount (1802–1880) of Edenton, North Carolina. Blount belonged to the influential Blount political family, whose members—including Congressman Thomas Blount (1759–1812)—were prominent figures in the Democratic-Republican political sphere aligned with Thomas Jefferson. The Blount and Eppes families operated within the same Jeffersonian political and social circles that linked Virginia and North Carolina planter-statesmen in the early nineteenth century. Portraits of notable figures were frequently gifted or retained among allied families within these networks, and the transfer of the portrait from Eppes to the Blount family is consistent with such patterns of exchange among the political elite of the period.

The painting subsequently descended through the Blount family line, preserving an unbroken tradition of ownership. Portraits painted by Peale during his Washington visit of 1818–1819 are relatively scarce and represent the final mature phase of one of America’s most important early portraitists. The present work therefore holds significance both as a documented likeness of a Jefferson family member and as part of Peale’s late-career portrait production.
 

24.25 x 20.25in. Framed 28.75 x 24.75in.

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The painting presents in stable condition consistent with an early nineteenth-century oil on canvas. Surface examination reveals age-appropriate craquelure and minor wear. A small area of loss at the sitter’s chin has been professionally inpainted by Northern California conservators (treatment cost $150); this restoration is visible under ultraviolet light. The portrait currently displays well with strong clarity in the sitter’s features and composition.