Historical
CHARLES WILLSON PEALE (1741–1827)
Portrait of General David Forman, about 1784
Oil on canvas, 51 1/2 x 39 5/8 in. (stretcher size); 49 1/2 x 39 in. (sight size)
RECORDED: M. Knoedler & Co., Business records, circa 1848–1971, Getty Research Institute, Special Collections, acc. no. 2012.M.54, Book 6, Stock No. 13241, p. 67 // Edwin Salter, A History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, Embracing A Genealogical Record of Earliest Settlers in Monmouth and Ocean Counties and Their Descendants (Bayonne, New Jersey: E. Gardner & Son, 1890), p. xxviii // Charles Forman and Mrs. Charles S. Fairchild, Three Revolutionary Soldiers: David Forman (1745–1797), Jonathan Forman (1755–1809), Thomas Marsh Forman (1758–1845) (Cleveland, Ohio: The Forman-Bassett-Hatch Co., 1902), p. 5 // Charles Coleman Sellers, Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale (Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1952), pp. 78, 306 no. 268 illus. // The Berkshire Museum: A Guide to the Collections (Pittsfield, Massachusetts: Berkshire Museum, 1968), [p. 17] illus. // “American Paintings in the Collection of the Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts,” The Magazine Antiques CXXII (November 1982), p. 1053 pl. II illus. in color // David J. Fowler, “Forman, David,” in Encyclopedia of New Jersey, Maxine N. Lurie and Marc Mappen, eds. (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2004), p. 283 illus. // “Charles Willson Peale,” in Teresa A. Carbone, American Paintings in the Brooklyn Museum, vol. 2: Artists Born by 1876 (Brooklyn, New York: Brooklyn Museum, 2006), pp. 844 illus., 845
EXHIBITED: Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, March 1966, The Picture of the Month // National Maritime Museum, London, England, April 14–October 2, 1976, 1776: The British Story of the American Revolution, p. 177 no. 256 illus.
EX COLL: the artist; to Mr. and Mrs. David Forman, probably Chestertown, Maryland, circa 1784; by descent to their daughter, Malvina Forman (1788–1876), Farquier County, Virginia; to George Latham Fletcher (1874–1929), Warrenton, Virginia, to 1913; [M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1913–16]; [John Levy Galleries, New York, 1916]; [Holland Galleries, New York, 1916]; Zenas Crane, Jr. (1840–1917), Dalton, Massachusetts, 1916; Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 1917–2018
Peale painted likenesses of many military and political figures associated with the War of Independence, among them General David Forman (1745–1797). Born on a farm near Englishtown, New Jersey, Forman was the fourth son of Joseph Forman, a well-to-do shipping merchant and his wife, Elizabeth Lee. In 1767, after completing his education at Princeton, Forman married Ann Marsh (1751–1798), who hailed from Chestertown, Maryland, and settled in Monmouth County. The couple had eleven children, five of whom (all daughters) survived him.
The most aggressive anti-loyalist leader in Monmouth County during the war, Forman was a controversial but fascinating figure. He began his military career in 1775 as a lieutenant colonel in a New Jersey regiment known as Heard’s Brigade, in which he later attained the rank of colonel. By late November 1776––its local government now destabilized by the war––Monmouth County had become an unruly place. Concerned about the increasing number of Tory raiders who were taking up arms, Washington asked Forman to act as a recruiting agent for the army and to apprise him of the positions of British troops. Most importantly, he appointed Forman head of a regiment organized to apprehend “all such persons as from good Information appear to be concerned in any Plot or Design against the liberty or safety of the United States” (as quoted in David Hackett Fischer, Washington’s Crossing [New York: Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 171). While Washington ordered Forman “not [to] suffer your Men to give the least molestation to the property of any in the Course of your March,” Forman took matters into his own hands (as quoted in Fischer, p. 172). A confirmed Tory hater, he established the Association of Retaliation, a vigilante group that confiscated Loyalist-owned estates, plundered goods, and punished the nonviolent relatives of Crown sympathizers. The severity of his actions and the vitriol with which he carried out his duties earned him the nickname “Devil David” from Tories and other disaffected types, as well as from his fellow Whigs.
In March 1777, Forman’s ranking rose again when he became brigadier general of the New Jersey militia. Forman remained fully involved in the rebel cause, continuing to assist Washington and the Continental Army in many ways, especially during the Battle of Monmouth, which was fought in and around Monmouth Court House (present-day Freehold) on June 28, 1778. At Washington’s request, Forman––who knew the people, landmarks, and terrain so well––was asked to serve as an adviser to Charles Lee, the accomplished but pugnacious English-born general who angered Washington by leading an unexpected retreat from the battlefield and ignoring Forman’s suggestions pertaining to troop movements. During the battle, Washington sent his army to harass British forces, led by Sir Henry Clinton, as they traveled from Philadelphia to New York. When apprised of Lee’s surprise withdrawal, Washington successfully reassembled his men. Fought on a sultry Sunday, the bloody skirmish ended in a draw: Washington proved himself an inspiring leader whose colonial militia could fight on a par with the enemy, while the British ultimately fended off the American forces and made their way northward.)
Lee’s misstep and his disrespectful attitude towards Washington led to his eventual court-martial, at which Forman testified against the defendant. However, Forman’s actions at the Battle of Monmouth––during which he and General Philemon Dickinson led the Jersey militia, doing everything “in their power to retard Clinton’s advance,” including demolishing bridges and cutting off the enemy’s access to water by filling up wells––secured the longstanding trust of the great man. As a result, from June 1780 to late 1782, Forman served as Washington’s espionage agent in Monmouth County and beyond, overseeing military intelligence affairs by establishing coastal outposts that monitored the movement of British ships in New York harbor and along the New Jersey coast. Washington’s letters to Forman indicate that he held his spy master in high regard.
After the war, Forman served as judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Monmouth County, as well as a justice of the peace. He was also involved in public works and helped provide aid to veteran soldiers returning to normal life. In the opinion of the Reverend Dr. John Woodhull of Freehold, Forman was “worth more to Monmouth than five hundred men” (Memorial Cyclopedia of New Jersey, pp. 28–29). Privately, Forman managed his extensive properties and was engaged in the manufacture of commercial salt.
