So skillful is his evocation of reality in this portrait that few have questioned its literal truth. As has been described, however, Rembrandt appears to have borrowed the striking design of this painting from pictorial schema he encountered in Netherlandish painting. And it is this unusual compositional format, this felicitous integration of sitter and attribute, that is key to our understanding of the sitter's intellectual pursuits and the artist's apparent desire to draw inspiration, not from the traditions of English portraiture as did many of his contemporaries, but instead from an allegorical work by the highly accomplished seventeenth-century Flemish painter David Teniers the Younger.
Exploring the art-historical lineage of Rubens Peale with a Geranium in no way mitigates its impressive individuality and widely acknowledged virtues of clarity, informality, and truth to nature. Rather, it enhances our understanding of the dedication and skill of two young men of the nation's first generation, Rembrandt Peale and Rubens Peale, who aspired to enrich their native soil by cultivating foreign seeds.
--Carol Eaton Soltis, "Rembrandt Peale's 'Rubens Peale with a Geranium': A Possible Source in David Teniers the Younger" American Art Journal 2002
Rembrandt Peale balanced the endearingly frank portrayal of his brother's weakness with a painstakingly tender portrayal of the geranium. Each subject, man and plant, fills one half of the canvas. On the viewer's left is Rubens, reserved and shy, and on the right the geranium, brilliant and luxurious, reaching towards the brother's head with lush leaves and vigorous sprouts. The consummate rendering of the geranium matches the sympathetic likeness of the young man.
--Gunther Pal Barth, Fleeting Moments:Nature and Culture in American History (1990)
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