Charles Willson Peale, 15 Apr 1741 - 22 Feb 1827 Search this
Sitter:
Charles Willson Peale, 15 Apr 1741 - 22 Feb 1827 Search this
Medium:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
Frame: 84.8 x 72.1 x 7.3cm (33 3/8 x 28 3/8 x 2 7/8")
Type:
Painting
Date:
c. 1791
Exhibition Label:
Born Queen Anne’s County, Maryland
Following artistic training in London, Charles Willson Peale recrossed the Atlantic in 1769 to embark on a successful painting career, chiefly in Maryland and Pennsylvania. He is estimated to have painted over a thousand portraits of the powerful and elite. Many of Peale’s family members became distinguished artists as well.
In his mid-forties—seven years before painting this self-portrait—Peale turned his attention to creating the young republic’s first scientifically organized museum. Opened in 1786, Peale’s Philadelphia Museum was intended as a democratic site of education and entertainment, accessible to anyone with the twenty-five-cent admission price. The wide-ranging collections included portraits of famous men, models of new inventions, animals preserved by taxidermy, and fossils. The central attraction, a mastodon skeleton excavated during a scientific expedition directed by Peale, helped prove the existence of prehistoric animals.
Nacido en Queen Anne’s County, Maryland
Terminada su educación artística en Londres, Charles Willson Peale cruzó de nuevo el Atlántico en 1769 para emprender una exitosa carrera de pintor, mayormente en Maryland y Pensilvania. Se estima que pintó más de mil retratos de la élite y los poderosos. La familia de Peale incluye muchos otros artistas distinguidos.
A sus cuarenta y tantos años, siete antes de pintar este autorretrato, Peale se dedicó a crear el primer museo de la joven república organizado científicamente. Inaugurado en 1786, el Museo de Filadelfia fue creado por Peale como espacio democrático de educación y entretenimiento, accesible a cualquiera por una entrada de 25 centavos. Las variadas colecciones incluían retratos de hombres famosos, modelos de inventos nuevos, animales disecados y fósiles. La atracción central, el esqueleto de un mastodonte desenterrado en una expedición científica dirigida por Peale, ayudó a probar la existencia de los animales prehistóricos.
Provenance:
A. Kenny C. Palmer, New York; purchased June 15, 1937 by Andrew Varick Stout, New York; his daughter Holly Callery, Charlotte, Vt.; (Lapham and Dibble Gallery, Inc., Shoreham, Vt.); purchased 1989 NPG
