Yarrow Mamout and the Charles Willson Peale Portrait of 1819

Charles Willson Peale's powerfully realized portrait of a formerly enslaved African Muslim, traditionally identified as Yarrow Mamout (c. 1736-1823), is an exceptionally rare representation of ethnic and religious diversity in America prior to 1825. This essay details how Peale came to know Yarrow, his observations of him and the context for his decision to paint Yarrow's portrait for his museum's portrait gallery. Peale's nephew, Joseph Brewer, told the artist about Yarrow shortly after he arrived in Washington, D.C. from Philadelphia in November 1818. Charles, who would turn seventy-eight in April, noted in his diary that he "heard of a Negro living in Georgetown said to be 140 years age... and that he is comfortable in his Situation having Bank stock and lives in his own house. I shall able to give a more particular account of him as I propose to make a portrait of him should I have the opportunity of doing it." Yarrow's reputed age and his atypical financial situation for a former slave attracted Peale's interest.