Provenance
Acquired from the artist by 1828 by Charles Robert Leslie [1794-1859], London; sold c. September 1839 to Sherman Converse [1790-1873], New Haven. (Coates and Company, New York), in 1847. W.C. Annan, Esq, San Francisco, by 1857.[1] Joseph Ripley, in 1858. Purchased by Daniel Huntington [1816-1906], New York, by 1873; purchased from his estate 17 June 1911 by the Corcoran Gallery of Art; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.
[1] The 1857 annual report of the Mercantile Library Association of San Francisco refers to “the large and valuable picture representing the interior of the United States House of Representatives” by Morse that was deposited by Annan to adorn the association’s suite of rented rooms (see bibliography).This information was kindly provided by Paul D. Schweizer, Museum Director Emeritus of the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica (see e-mail of 6 January 2022, in NGA curatorial files).
Accession Number
2014.79.27
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 220.7 × 331.8 cm (86 7/8 × 130 5/8 in.) | framed: 256.5 × 363.2 × 10.5 cm (101 × 143 × 4 1/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund)
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting Canvas American
Background & Context
Background Story
Samuel F. B. Morse (1791-1872) was an American painter known for his history paintings and portraits before abandoning painting for the career in telegraphy that would make him famous. The House of Representatives from 1822, probably reworked 1823, depicts the interior of the House of Representatives in the United States Capitol in the precisely observed, documentary manner that Morse brought to his history paintings. Morse painted the House of Representatives as a grand history painting of American democracy, showing 80 members of Congress in session, each with individually rendered features—a feat of documentary painting that required Morse to visit the Capitol and sketch each member from life.
Cultural Impact
The House of Representatives is important in the history of American painting because it represents Morse's ambition to create a grand history painting of American democracy—an ambition that was frustrated by public indifference and that contributed to Morse's decision to abandon painting for telegraphy. The painting's failure as a popular success showed that American audiences were not yet ready for grand history painting on American subjects, and Morse's subsequent invention of the telegraph is one of the great ironies of American cultural history—the painter who failed to visualize American democracy invented the technology that would connect it.
Why It Matters
The House of Representatives is Morse's grand history painting of American democracy: the 80 members of Congress individually rendered from life in a documentary painting of American democratic government. The 1822-23 painting's failure as a popular success contributed to Morse's decision to abandon painting for telegraphy—one of the great ironies of American cultural history.
