Francis Scott Key

Description

Oil on canvas portrait painting of "Francis Scott Key" (1779-1843), 1902, by DeWitt Clinton Peters, after Rembrandt Peale. Francis Scott Key was a lawyer, author, and poet of Frederick, Maryland. On September 13, 1814, during the War of 1812, he witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore. From the deck of a British ship he saw the American flag and later penned a poem about the experience, entitled: "Defense of Fort McHenry," which was later renamed the "Star Spangled Banner," and later became the national anthem of the United States. Key sat for the original portrait by Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860) around 1796, when he was a new graduate of St. John's College in Annapolis. In 1902, artist DeWitt Clinton Peters (1865-1948), born in the army hospital at Fort McHenry, painted a copy of this portrait.