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Margaret Triggs Matthews Peale (Mrs. Charles Willson Peale, Jr.), by Charles Willson Peale, ca 1770. Oil on canvas. 30 13/64 x 25 7/64 in.(76.7 x 63.8 cm). Maryland Historical Society, Accession: 1987-50.
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Rachel Goldsborough Barclay (Mrs. John Barclay), by Charles Wilson Peale, 1790. Oil on canvas. 35 43/64 x 27 in. (90.6 x 68.6 cm.) Maryland Historical Society, Accession: 1948-21-1.
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Medium/Discipline: Painting
Birthplace: Queen Anne's County, Maryland
Place of Death: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Maryland Affiliation: Born here, Depicts Maryland subjects, Active while in residence
Prominent Theme: Portraits, Still Life
Subject Headings: Charles Willson Peale; Peale, Charles Wilson; Peale family
Gender: Male
Race/Ethnicity: White
Biography: Charles Willson Peale and his lineage are revered as cultural leaders in Maryland and in Colonial American history. Born in Queen Anne's County, Maryland to a moderately poor family, Charles Willson Peale was apprenticed to a saddler and started a business in it. He then took painting lessons from a German painter in exchange for a saddle; Peale was allowed to watch him paint. Peale studied painting with John Hesselius in 1763 and met John Singleton Copley in Boston and studied in his studio from Oct-Jan 1765. His formal training continued with Benjamin West in London in 1770. His first portrait upon return to America was of George Washington in the uniform of a Virginia colonel, which is now the only extant, or surviving, pre-revolutionary painting by Peale. During the course of his career, he painted 14 likenesses of George Washington.Charles Willson Peale settled in Philadelphia in 1776, where he served as an officer for a commanded corps of volunteers in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. He painted many portraits of military and political leaders during his service. In 1779, he was elected to the Pennsylvania Legislature. In 1882, he opened Peale's Museum in Philadelphia consisting of natural history objects and portraits, the majority of the latter by himself and his son Rembrandt Peale. He also is credited with organizing the first art school in America. Charles Willson Peale had 11 children, all named after famous artists; his wife was Rachel Brewer (1744-1790) whom he married in 1762. Three of his children became painters: Rembrandt, Titian and Raphaelle. Letters he wrote to his artist children show his guidance about artists to admire and those to avoid copying. Peale's art students included William Pearce, Edmund Brice, William Mercer, John Beale Bordley and Matthias Bordley, Elizabeth Bordley Gibson and John Beale Bordley II. In terms of subject matter, Peale painted more children than any American before him. To him, a portrait was "above all a domestic symbol." Peale painted portraits and miniatures in Maryland and Virginia from 1763-1776 and again in the 1790s. At the age of 81, he painted Christ Healing the Sick and at age 83 he painted his full-length self-portrait now at the Pennsylvania Academy. The Maryland Historical Society holds the most significant body of works by the Peale family, which includes Charles Willson Peale, his frame-maker brother James Peale, and their respective children and children's children, many of whom continued the family tradition of painting. An exhibition essay from the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts deals with stylistic influences on Charles Willson Peale's painting. It mentions that: Peale's portraits reflect the naturalistic portrait style of London in Sir Joshua Reynolds' day as well as Hogarth's theory of the line of beauty'; Du Fresnoy acquainted Peale with the concept of a relationship between painting and poetry; and Benjamin West's dedication to art influenced Charles Willson Peale greatly.
Taught By: John Singleton Copley, Boston; Benjamin West, London, England
Art-related Employment: painter; museum founder and curator; founder of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
Other Employment: saddler; civic leader; inventor; educator; essayist; silversmith; excavator; naturalist; gentleman farmer; landscape gardener
Selected References: Dean, Mary A. [et al.] 350 Years of Art & Architecture in Maryland (College Park : Art Gallery, and Gallery of the School of Architecture, University of Maryland), 1984.
Pleasants, J. Hall. Two Hundred and Fifty Years of Painting in Maryland (Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art), 1945.
Charles Willson Peale at Belfield: A Guide to the Historic Farm . (Philadelphia: LaSalle College), 1971.
Other Publications: Miller, Lillian B., ed. The Peale Family: Creation of a Legacy 1770-1870.
Sellers, Charles Coleman, "Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge (v.42:1), 1952.
Maryland Institutions Holding Artworks: Baltimore Museum of Art; Maryland Historical Society; Maryland State Archives; Walters Art Museum
Maryland Institutions Holding Biographical Material: Peale's Journal (transcribed), July 29, Sept. 25 1801, Maryland Historical Society Library.
Multiple-Artist Exhibitions: Paintings by The Peale Family, Cincinnati Art Museum, Oct 1-31, 1954. Intro by Edward H. Dwight.
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