Digital mock-up (May 2021)

“The Effect of a Grand Exhibition”: The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1807

 

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Peale's Sketch Design & Architecture The Paintings Unresolved Paintings Groups of Paintings Substitutions

Text about Peale's sketch.

1. Front door 2. Small door 3. G. Baise 4. Smirke’s works

Options for the paintings.

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Peal's installation plan highlights the main double doors of the building. After entering through these doors, visitors encountered the installation to their left, along the west wall of the circular exhibition room. The vertical lines to the left of the door denote a curtain of green baize, which Peale installed along the east side of the room.

2. Small door

3. G. Baise

Peal's plan prominently featured twelve paintings by Robert Smirke, Robert Fulton had commissioned these paintings - and engravings after them - to serve as illustrations for Joel Barrow's poem, The Columbiad. When Peale shared this plan with Fulton in a letter, Fulton replied with concern, worrying that "the effect of Mr. Smirks [sic] delicate paintings may be diminished if Suspended under the bold works of Mr West. Fulton encouraged Peale to consider "whether it is not best to hang them by themselves and about eye high with this inscription

{ Eleven pictures by R. Smirke Esqu.
From Mr. Barlows Columbiad"

Fulton even sketched a proposed grouping for the eleven paintings: instead of Peal's horizontal line, he located one picture above two symmetrical rows of five canvases each:

Note: any notes and instructions can go here.

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