Young and Old Meet in Columbus

Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum opens today and will be on view through November 5, 2000 at the Columbus Museum, Columbus, Georgia. 

Young America opens on National Grandparents Day—a perfect opportunity to take a grandchild or grandparent to the exhibition!

Every boy should have a grandmother like Mrs. Smith, who clearly adores her grandson. 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.

Source: Amy Pastan. Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (New York and Washington, D.C.: Watson-Guptill Publications, in cooperation with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2000).

Pictured: Charles Willson Peale, 1741–1827, Mrs. James Smith and Grandson, 1776, oil , 36 3/8 x 29 1/4 in. , Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson Levering Smith, Jr. and museum purchase.