In the winter of 1783, an ailing retired American general named Joseph Reed, a former aide to General Washington, set sail for England to pay a visit to the family of his late wife. In his luggage he carried two fine portraits done by his old friend Charles Willson Peale. Both had renown at home and might well have drawn favorable notice in Britain. Instead, they disappeared from art history.
Last week Peale's portraits of Washington and General Nathanael Greene (see color) were safely housed in the collection of the Montclair, N.J., Museum of Art—and it was a fitting place for them....
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