Oil on canvas. 43½ x 51¾ in. • 110.5 x 131.4 cm. Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA.
When Peale painted this dual portrait in 1783, Robert Morris, on the right, was the United States Minister of Finance. Gouverneur Morris, on the left, was then his assistant.
In 1775 the British government was not the limited monarchy we know today. The King was in charge of the executive branch of the government and his duties and powers corresponded, roughly, to those the President now handles in the United States. ... Political parties as we understand them today had yet to be born. England was split into four or five factions,
some revolving around a noble Lord such as Marquis of Rockingham, some around a class (the country squires) and roughly on-third of Parliament around the King who, through his executive power, had innumerable jobs, from cabinet post to lucrative sinecures, to dispense among those who supported him.