THE DE VRIES PORTRAIT OF WASHINGTON

A RECENT DISCOVERY IN HOLLAND

The visit of the Holland Society of New York to the Netherlands in August, 1888, will ever be a memorable event both to the hosts and to their favored guests. The official and civic receptions, the excursions and banquets, the enthusiastic welcome of the multitude which crowded the thoroughfares and the house-tops, the music, addresses, and original songs, the lavish display of flags and bunting, the cathedral bells ringing out the national airs of America-all made an impression which seems like a dream. It was a continuous ovation of ten days, and more befitting royalty than a company of simple citizens of a republic. It was the home sentiment greeting the members of the family after an absence of two hundred and fifty years.

The company then disbanded. Some returned by the same steamer which carried them over, while others departed for London, Paris, and the Rhine. Their visit was limited to the provinces of North and South Holland.

A few members of the society determined to devote two weeks more in travel through the other provinces. They were everywhere received with the same hearty demonstrations. It continued to be a royal progress to Leeuwarden, Sneek, Groningen, Utrecht, and Middelburg. But nowhere was the hospitality more pronounced than at Arnhem on the Rhine, in the province of Gueilderland.

The company of gentlemen who here received them bore the peculiar title of "The Society wishing to attract Visitors to Arnhem." The midday breakfast at Hotel Bellevue, arranged according to the characteristic taste of the cultured Hollander, appealed to the poetic sentiment. The table on the veranda commanded a view down the lawn sloping to the Rhine, across which, and beyond the intervening meadow, were visible the spires of the churches in the villages lying among the German hills. Afterward, in response to an invitation, they were driven to the residence of Mr. Peter de Vries, Sr.

It was what Americans would call an old-fashioned house. It bore the appearance of wealth indicative of comfort rather than of ostentation. The interior arrangements, the furniture and decorations, were similar to

those of the old Knickerbocker homes of New York. This, together with the manner of the reception accorded by the family and invited friends, immediately placed the visitors at their ease.

Their attention was at once arrested by a portrait of our Washington standing upon an easel, and decorated with Dutch and American flags. Their sur prise was greatly increased when Mr. de Vries read from a carefully prepared manuscript a history of the portrait, a part of which I have the privi lege to present:

He said: "Under every government which our fatherland has had, the love of liberty has manifested itself;

Peter de Vries Lover it was only modified in its expression

in accordance with the circumstances under which the people lived. The proper and natural consequences were, that the principles proclaimed more than 100 years ago in America, in the founding of an independent nationality, met with sympathy and support in the Netherlands, not only from their political leaders, but also from men who were not invested with public office. Hence they did not hesitate to extend their commercial enterprises to those countries which were in need of help and capital. This was the principal cause why my great-grandfather, over one hundred years ago, dared to take the initiative, according to his ability and influence, to support the Americans in their struggle for liberty against the odds of England. Actuated by such a spirit, Claas Taan, living at Zaandam, and carrying on business under the firm name of 'Claas Taan and Sons,' sent a portion of his commercial fleet, at that time consisting of eighteen vessels of the largest tonnage, to America. He was successful in running the English blockade and carrying provisions into Baltimore. This deed was afterward remembered by the Americans, and my greatgrandfather, Mr. Claas Taan, received, in 1793, a present from America in commemoration of this service (pointing to the portrait of Washing. ton), and his descendants cherish it as an evidence how an independent nation values the voluntary services of a foreign friend in adversity.

This, gentlemen, is a contribution to the history of America's war for independence."

Mr. de Vries then stated that the portrait was presented by Washington himself to Claas Taan, accompanied with an autograph letter.

Here was discovered an original portrait of Washington, and connected

with an event in our war of Revolution of which the Americans were totally ignorant.

The writer of this article made reply to Mr. de Vries' address, in which he expressed the delight of the visitors, and promised, upon his return to America, to investigate the genuineness of the portrait, and to verify, if possible, the historical incident. He began his researches as soon as possible, which were attended with no little difficulty. He received the names Pav and Pavk, as transcribed from the canvas; but, as these could not be found in the catalogue of artists, he requested a photographic copy of the portrait. Mr. de Vries replied that he had never permitted a reproduction of the portrait in any form; still he complied with the request, and, after ten copies were taken (two of which were sent to the writer) the plate was purposely broken. The photograph very distinctly presented the artist's name-C. Polk, 1793.

It now became interesting to identify the painter. The writer at first proceeded to compare the photograph with the reproductions of known original portraits of Washington, but could not find its counterpart; nor could he find the name Polk in any one of the conventional lists of contemporary portrait painters. After long research, the following brief sentence was discovered in Tuckerman's Book of Artists: "More than one portrait of Washington bears the name of Polke, who passed a year or two in America. One of these belonged to the estate of Arthur Lee, and was sent to Washington during the civil war, but was returned by the government at its close."

A letter was addressed to Governor Lee, of Virginia, describing Mr. de Vries's picture, and inquiring if it corresponded with the one in the possession of his family. The governor referred it to Mr. Poindexter, state librarian, who directed to a description of the Lee portrait in Johnston's Original Portraits of Washington, of which the following is a summarized extract:

It is proper to record here three portraits which legitimately come in a list of Peale's works. They are attributed to Charles Peale Polk, a young Virginian, who was a relative, namesake, and pupil of Peale's; and it was said that Polk painted only the figures, while his master painted the heads. The likeness obtained in the portraits is a close rendering of the Washington head, according to the Houdon standard. One of these portraits was painted for Arthur Lee, Commissioner to France, being sent to him while abroad. It is a three-quarter picture of Washington in Continental uniform, with three stars in the epaulets. His hand, holding a chapeau, rests on the hilt of his sword. Princeton, with the college buildings, furnishes the background. A remark in the letter accompanying the transmission indicates that there were two pictures of this kind. The second picture identified is called a kit-cat, and is marked C Polk, and is now in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The third is in the Corcoran gallery at Washington.

The extract from Tuckerman implies that the artist was a foreigner, or that he resided abroad, and it gives his name as Polke. There can be no doubt but that he is the same person alluded to in Johnston, since both speak of a portrait for Arthur Lee, although the latter says that this picture bears the name of Ch Peale Polk, while the one in Philadelphia has it C: Polk, but does not state in what form it stands on the picture in the Corcoran gallery.

Mr. de Vries's picture bears the name of C. Polk.

If the other data should be found to be satisfactory, this confusion of names and place of residence would prove to be no serious objection to the claim of the de Vries portrait as an original. Favorable results from the investigation of the historic event, on account of which the portrait was presented by President Washington to Mr. Claas Taan, are necessary to corroborate the above testimony. This subject is at present engaging the interested attention of the Maryland Historical Society. Mr. Browne, librarian of the Johns Hopkins University, writes that "there is no doubt but that Baltimore was virtually blockaded by the English cruisers, and the distress of the inhabitants arose from the want of such things as could only be procured from Europe, and not from the need of food, since they had the whole South and West from which to draw supplies."

In the family of Mr. de Vries, it was always understood that an autograph letter of Washington's accompanied the gift of the portrait to their ancestor, and that this, together with other important documents, was lost at the time that Napoleon's army took possession of the Netherlands. It is positively known that Mr. Claas Taan was a property-holder in or near Baltimore. Sixty thousand gulden were paid to Mr. de Vries's family, as proceeds of the sale of some portion of this estate, many years after the close of the Revolutionary War. A record of this transaction should be easily ascertained.

Does a diary of Washington cover the year 1793?

Has the family of Mr. Polk, or of Peale, the artist, any letters referring to this interesting transaction?

Is there authority for the statement, made by a lecturer on "Art in Holland," that the Hollanders loaned the American Congress fourteen million dollars in aid of our Revolution? If this be true, let us cite it, with this act of Claas Taan, whenever we refer with gratitude to Kosciusko, Pulaski, Von Steuben, and Lafayette.

On the 4th of July, 1876, Mr. de Vries gave a banquet in honor of the Centennial of the Declaration of American Independence. The consulgeneral of the United States for Holland was present. Mr. James Birney,