'Art conceal'd': Peale's double portrait of Benjamin and Eleanor Ridgely Laming

Peale modified some elements of Tasso's poem for the portrait. Laming does not rest his head in his wife's lap; instead, his head is positioned vertically, in keeping with the conventions of portraiture. Moreover, he, unlike his wife, is dressed in contemporary clothing. This differentiation may, however, be interpreted as reinforcing the theme of the poem, if Rinaldo is seen as an interloper in the garden who is only temporarily distracted from the world outside. In keeping with the tradition of English portraiture is the incorporation of a landscape view in the background, which from the seventeenth century was used especially in portraits of men as an emblem of the sitter's achievements. In this case part of Laming's activities as a merchant took place at the harbor of Baltimore, the site depicted in the background. It was there that his ships were docked, at Bowley's Wharf. The view of the harbor at Fell's Point is so carefully rendered that, with the help of Peale's written account, the location from which it was drawn can be pinpointed almost exactly: it corresponds to the location of Darley Hall due north of Fell's Point, near the estates of Thomas Yates, John Carrere, and Philip Rogers, seen in the upper right of a contemporary map of the city [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 14 OMITTED!.(55) Finally, the telescope appears similar in its position and shape to Rinaldo's sword, "the only mark of warlike pride," which, "Estrang'd from fight, hung idly at his side" (217, 218). As a modern substitute for the sword, it indicates the business of the manly world that has been set aside: Laming might have used such a telescope from his country estate, one-and-a-half miles north of the city, to view incoming ships. The telescope could also, however, be a reference to the mirror; it would be typical of Peale to make a visual pun on the double meaning of "glass." Complicating its interpretation is the fact that the telescope appears to have been an addition, apparently not part of Peale's initial concept. Examination of the painting by X-radiography shows that Peale added it after completing Laming's figure.(56) Nor is the telescope mentioned in Peale's record of the completion of the painting.

Peale also modifies the garden described by Tasso as a lush paradise:

The garden then unfolds a beauteous scene With flow'rs adorn'd, and ever-living green. There silver lakes reflect the beaming day; Here crystal streams in gurgling fountains play: Cool vales descend, and sunny hills arise; And groves, and caves, and grottos strike the eyes. (63-68)

Peale includes none of these Edenic elements. The garden here is not supernatural, with "eternal fruits" and green apples hanging next to ripe ones. Far from "ever-living green," the trees seem to be turning and the grass going brown. The Lamings' setting is not a formal garden with terraces and parterres in the European tradition. It appears instead to be natural countryside, unaltered by plantings of flowers or garden features. Is Peale's view perhaps a straightforward rendering of the Lamings' estate? All we know of the grounds at Darley Hall is Peale's comment that they were "cultivated with much taste."(57) Is this a "natural" English park? Although Baltimoreans were aware of the trend in garden design toward naturalistic landscaping, and occasionally incorporated aspects of it, in general they did not adopt it.(58) Many Baltimore estates, however, already had large natural grounds that were admired by visitors in the eighteenth century. For example, a description of Belvedere, John Eager Howard's estate outside of Baltimore, might equally describe the landscape that Peale painted: