Watercolor over graphite pencil on paper; 14 x 20 3/4 in. (35.6 x 52.7 cm). The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI.
This drawing was begun by C.W. Peale; the detail was completed by his son. It served as a study for Charles Willson Peale’s self-portrait, The Artist in His Museum.
But with the British army evacuated [from Philadelphia in 1778] and the Patriots now in charge, Philadelphia Loyalists were doubly vulnerable to censure and punishment for siding with the Crown and for having consorted with the enemy. The Philadelphia Assembly Appointed [Charles Willson] Peale and four others to be Commissioners of Forfeited Estates, and for that the commissioners would receive a 5 percent commission. Peale’s group had extraordinary power to interrogate suspected traitors, break into houses, remove property, and sell off estates. Writs were issued to seize 118 estates ...