Charles Willson Peale: The Staircase Group

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Charles Willson Peale, The Staircase Group was one of the first original American paintings because it stepped away form all the previous influences from the Europeans. The portrait is something that has not been seen before, double portraits of his sons. Peale did this in a non-tradional format by encasing the subjects (his two sons) in a doorframe. Peale also choose to paint his two sons typically they would be of “kings, atrocity or hero’s” but instead he captures his two sons walking up the staircase. The bottom step and the riser blend into the portrait perfectly. He plays with foreshortening, linear lines along with rounded all within this painting. The video we watched tells us that Peale is “Democratic and convincing” as he is able

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