Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/732

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PEALE
PEALE


in 1770 lie went to London, England, bearing let- ters to Benjamin West, who received him kindly, and whose pupil he became. In London, Peale also studied modelling in wax, casting and moulding in plaster, engraving in mezzotinto, and miniature- painting. He returned to Annapolis in 1774, began painting portraits, and two years later established himself in Philadelphia. Later he became a cap- tain of volunteers, and was present at the battles of Trenton and Germantown. He also began to take an active interest in political affairs, and was a member of the legislature in 1779. Afterward he turned his attention to natural history. A mam- moth that had been dismterred for him in Ulster county, N. Y., in 1801, led his mind into this new channel, and the idea of forming a museum oc- curred to him. He forthwith became a collector of all manner of natural curiosities, and with these, and a large number of portraits, opened, in 1802, '• Peale's Museum " to the public. He gave lec- tures on natural history, and occupied himself also with dentistry. In 1791, and again in 1794, he made earnest but ineffectual endeavors to form an art academy in Philadelphia, and he lived to as- sist in establishing the Pennsylvania academy of the fine arts and to contribute "to seventeen of its an- nual exhibitions. Peale is notable rather for versa- tility than for real genius in any direction. He took up, in turn, the making of coaches, harnesses, clocks, and watches, besides working as a silver- smith, and he was also soldier, politician, natu- ralist, taxidermist, and dentist. It is said of him that he •' sawed his own ivory for his miniatures, moulded the glasses, and made the shagreen cases." In the course of his various studies he became an author also, his writings including an essay on " Building Wooden Bridges " (1797) ; " Discourse Introductory to a Course of Lectures on Natural History ..." (Philadelphia, 1800) ; " Epistle on the Means of Preserving Health " (Philadelphia, 1803) : and " Domestic Happiness " (1816). But his fame rests mainly on his achievements as a portrait- painter, and is due in a great measure to the circum- stance of his having been enabled to associate his name with that of Washington, who gave him, it is asserted, no less than fourteen sittings. He exe- cuted in 1772 his first portrait of Washington, who was then a Virginia colonel, and after that painted him repeatedly during the Revolutionary war, and afterward several of these portraits he engraved. He was at one time the only portrait-painter in the colonies, and his services were much in demand. Among his portraits, many of which have been en- graved, are those of George and Martha Wash- ington, John Hancock, Robert Morris, Nathanael Greene, Horatio Gates, Benjamin Lincoln, Baron Steuben, Count Rochambeau, Baron DeKalb, Ben- jamin Franklin, Peyton Randolph, Thomas .Jeffer- son, Charles Carroll, Lord Stirling, Bishop White, Albert Gallatin, Dr. Benjamin Rush, Count Volney, Timothy Pickering, John Witherspoon, and Alex- ander Hamilton. Those of James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, John C. Calhoun, and Henry Clay were painted in the winter of 1818-'19. The Xew York historical society owns four portraits by him — Washington. Plamilton, John B. Bordley, and Pieter Johan Van Berckel. His •' Christ Healing the Sick at the Pool of Bethesda" was painted in his eighty-first year, and his last work was a full-length portrait of himself at the age of eighty-three. It is now in the Philadelphia academy. See Elizabeth B. Jolm- ston's '• Original Portraits of Washington " (Boston, 1882) ; William Dunlap's " History of the Arts of Design in the United States " (New York, 1834) ; and Scharfs " History of Philadelphia " (Philadel- phia, 1884). — His son, Rembrandt, artist, b. in Bucks county, Pa., 22 Feb., 1778; d. in Philadel- phia. 3 Oct., 1860, showed a talent for art at an early age, and was but seventeen when he exe- cuted a portrait of Washington, from whom he was for- tunate enough to obtain three sit- tings. Immediate- ly after this, in 1796, he went to Charleston, S. C., where he was em- ployed until 1801, in which year he went to England to study under Benja- min West. While in London he paint- ed some portraits, and in 1803 re- turned to the Unit-

ed States, finding

sufficient occupation in Savannah, Charleston, New York, and Philadelphia. He visited Paris in 1807, and again in 1809, to paint the portraits of distin- guished Frenchmen, many of which pictures were afterward placed in liis father's museum, and to study in the art galleries of the city. From the last trip he returned in 1810, and again opened a studio in Philadelphia. He painted in that city, New York, Baltimore, and Boston until 1829, and then went abroad again, visiting France, and spending sixteen months in Italy. In 1832 he went to England, and established himself in 1833 in London, where he exhibited at the Royal academy, but the death of his son forced him to return. Peale was president of the American academy, suc- ceeding Col. Trumbull, and was one of the original members of the Academy of design. On his re- moval to Philadelphia in 1827 he was made an honorary member. His numerous portraits include those of Baron Cuvier, Bernardin de Saint Pierre, Jean Antoine Houdon, at the Pennsylvania acad- emy of fine arts, Thomas Jefferson, Mrs. James Madison, Thomas Sully, Com. Oliver H. Perry, Rammohun Roy, G. W. Bethune, William Bain- bridge. Dr. Joseph Priestley, and Stephen Deca- tur, owned by the New York historical society. Like his father, he jiainted Washington several times, the last and most notable portrait being executed in 1823. It was exhibited in the prin- cipal cities of the United States and Europe in 1829, and in 1832 was bought bv congress for 12.000. In 18o9-'60 he delivered 'a lecture on '• Washington and His Portraits " in most of the large cities of the Union. His most noted figure- compositions are "Napoleon on Horseback" (1810); " Babes in the Wood " ; " Song of the Shirt " ; " Jupiter and lo " (1813) ; " Lysippa on the Rock " : " Roman Daughter " ; " Ascent of Elijah " ; and " Court of Death " (1820). His versatility almost equalled that of his father. He was one of the first artists to practise lithography in the United States, gaining a silver medal at the Franklin institute in 1827 for a portrait of Washington. Like his father, he lectured on natural history. He was the author of " An Account of the Skeleton of the Mammoth " (London, 1802) : " Historical Disquisition on the Mammoth" (1803); "Notes on Italy" (Philadel- phia, 1831); "Graphics" (1841); and "Reminis- cences of Art and Artists " (1845). He also edited the " Portfolio of an Artist " (1839), and contrib-