Mrs.+James+Smith+and+Grandson

Date: 1776
 * [[image:https://s3.amazonaws.com/saam.media/files/styles/x_large/s3/images/1980/1980.93_1a.jpg?itok=lTjuP-b- width="269" height="333" link="@https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/mrs-james-smith-and-grandson-19292"]] || Title: **Mrs. James Smith and Grandson**

Artist: **Charles Willson Peale** Born: Maryland 1741 Died: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1827

Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 36 3/8 x 29 1/4 in. (92.4 x 74.3 cm.) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson Levering Smith, Jr. and museum purchase

Accession: 1980.93 || Charles Willson Peale painted this intimate portrait in Philadelphia two months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The young boy, Campbell Smith, named for his grandfather*, holds //The Art of Speaking//, a manual of rhetoric and oratorical study. Campbell rests his finger on the phrase “to be or not to be” from Hamlet's soliloquy, possibly referring to family aspirations or revolutionary ideals.
 * Exhibition Label: **

*This is the official label text, but the donor states that the boy is named after his step-grandfather, Mr. Campbell.


 * Suggested Questions: **
 * Instead of looking at these people as grandmother and grandson, pretend they represent the opposites, Old and Young. What about the way they are painted makes them look this way? (e.g. the somber colors and dark values of the grandmother contrasted with the bright colors of the grandon)
 * Instead of Old and Young, what if they stand for Past and Future? Do you have anything to add to your list of differents? How might this relate to the American Revolution?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Learning to Look <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">@Pre-Visit Graphic Organizer <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Mrs. James Smith Elementary TAH Notes <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Mrs. James Smith Family Biography
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Resources: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">[[image:http://americanart.si.edu/images/1980/1980.93_2b.jpg link="http://americanart.si.edu/images/1980/1980.93_2b.jpg"]] || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">[|Detail of "Hamlet's Soliloquy"] ||

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;">Artist Biography <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;">SAAM Collections Page
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14.3px;">Links: **