Artistic family
I love the amazing, remarkable early American Peale family.
The Peale Family, by Charles Willson Peale
Here's Charles Willson Peale, patriarch of the family. Who could not love him? Look at his happy eyes! (Painted while he was a militiaman in the American Revolution.)
And if that picture alone isn't enough, here's more! He was a brilliant portrait painter, painting with oil on canvas as well as ivory miniatures - here's a beautiful miniature of James Madison.
But in addition to being an artist, he was full of other activities as well. He started the first natural history and art museum in the USA (in the 1780s! in this infant nation!) and I think I read that he started the first art school as well as organizing the country's first scientific expedition in 1801, exhuming a mastodon skeleton in upstate NY. His natural history collection is now The Peale Museum in Baltimore. His museum was one of the first to classify natural specimens by Linnaean taxonomy (rather than just presenting them as interesting oddities.)
The conservator in me loves that he was a museum professional in addition to everything else.
In NY he painted the exhumation of the mastodon:
This brilliant jack-of-all-trades was also an inventor - as a youth he'd been apprenticed in metalwork and watch and clock making before landing on portraiture. One of his inventions was a polygraph that could take clear and precise copies of letters. Thomas Jefferson used one during his presidency to copy all his letters.
His younger brother James Peale also became an artist by studying under him, primarily painting portrait miniatures and fruit still life:
But more famous are Charles' children, several of whom he named after famous artists - Rubens, Rembrandt, Raphaelle and Titian (among others).
This is Charles' tromp-l'oeil portrait of his sons Raphaelle and Titian that was so realistic (apparently with a real bottom stair and a doorjamb sticking out) that George Washington purportedly tipped his hat to the boys.
Son Raphaelle Peale was primarily a still-life painter (considered the first professional still-life painter in America, since it was previously considered rather amateur) and apparently suffered melancholy as an effect of mercury and arsenic poisoning from doing taxidermy work in his father's museum. Alas!
Son Rembrandt Peale was a skilled portrait painter. Wikipedia says that Rembrandt 'at thirteen, painted his first known self-portrait. Later on in his life, Rembrandt Peale "often showed this painting to young beginners, to encourage them to go from 'bad' to better..." like his steady progressions to become a successful portraitist."' Bless him!
I love this portrait of his brother Rubens Peale with a geranium (1801) because it reminds me of a youthful naturalist Stephen Maturin. And I love the odd little detail that he's wearing spectacles and holding another pair, and I love the way his fingers are in the pot.
I also love this portrait of the same brother, Rubens, a few years later (1807).
Rubens Peale was a painter too. Of course.
He was taught by his own daughter, Mary Jane Peale, who had studied with uncle Rembrandt.
Titian Peale was also an artist, as well as being a naturalist, entomologist, scientific explorer and pioneer photographer.
Titian Peale made a remarkable moth and butterfly collection, was a published author on natural history, was also a published illustrator (Thomas Say's American Entomology, which he illustrated when still a teenager) and he made beautiful sketches of plants and animals in his studies.
Luca Tern at Callao, near Lima, Peru
He was part of the Wilkes expedition, aka the US Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842, as an expedition artist and a naturalist.
Charles' niece Anna Claypoole Peale (daughter of James) was a miniature portraitist. Here's a beautiful portrait that reminds me of Sophia Williams.
Two of her sisters were also notable painters.
A tromp-l'oeil painting by Margaretta Angelica Peale.
Portrait by Sarah Miriam Peale.
And Charles' nephew, Charles Peale Polk (son of sister Elizabeth Peale) was also a portrait painter. This is his self-portrait.
There, I think I've covered most of the artistic members of this amazing family. I love them. I'm glad they're Americans like me, too. Usually my favorite artists are European, mostly French. If England is the center of the world, France is the sun. The USA is just a little satellite moon. But I'm glad to know I share the moon with such an remarkable family.
Read more!
The Peale Family, by Charles Willson Peale
Here's Charles Willson Peale, patriarch of the family. Who could not love him? Look at his happy eyes! (Painted while he was a militiaman in the American Revolution.)
And if that picture alone isn't enough, here's more! He was a brilliant portrait painter, painting with oil on canvas as well as ivory miniatures - here's a beautiful miniature of James Madison.
But in addition to being an artist, he was full of other activities as well. He started the first natural history and art museum in the USA (in the 1780s! in this infant nation!) and I think I read that he started the first art school as well as organizing the country's first scientific expedition in 1801, exhuming a mastodon skeleton in upstate NY. His natural history collection is now The Peale Museum in Baltimore. His museum was one of the first to classify natural specimens by Linnaean taxonomy (rather than just presenting them as interesting oddities.)
The conservator in me loves that he was a museum professional in addition to everything else.
In NY he painted the exhumation of the mastodon:
This brilliant jack-of-all-trades was also an inventor - as a youth he'd been apprenticed in metalwork and watch and clock making before landing on portraiture. One of his inventions was a polygraph that could take clear and precise copies of letters. Thomas Jefferson used one during his presidency to copy all his letters.
His younger brother James Peale also became an artist by studying under him, primarily painting portrait miniatures and fruit still life:
But more famous are Charles' children, several of whom he named after famous artists - Rubens, Rembrandt, Raphaelle and Titian (among others).
This is Charles' tromp-l'oeil portrait of his sons Raphaelle and Titian that was so realistic (apparently with a real bottom stair and a doorjamb sticking out) that George Washington purportedly tipped his hat to the boys.
Son Raphaelle Peale was primarily a still-life painter (considered the first professional still-life painter in America, since it was previously considered rather amateur) and apparently suffered melancholy as an effect of mercury and arsenic poisoning from doing taxidermy work in his father's museum. Alas!
Son Rembrandt Peale was a skilled portrait painter. Wikipedia says that Rembrandt 'at thirteen, painted his first known self-portrait. Later on in his life, Rembrandt Peale "often showed this painting to young beginners, to encourage them to go from 'bad' to better..." like his steady progressions to become a successful portraitist."' Bless him!
I love this portrait of his brother Rubens Peale with a geranium (1801) because it reminds me of a youthful naturalist Stephen Maturin. And I love the odd little detail that he's wearing spectacles and holding another pair, and I love the way his fingers are in the pot.
I also love this portrait of the same brother, Rubens, a few years later (1807).
Rubens Peale was a painter too. Of course.
He was taught by his own daughter, Mary Jane Peale, who had studied with uncle Rembrandt.
Titian Peale was also an artist, as well as being a naturalist, entomologist, scientific explorer and pioneer photographer.
Titian Peale made a remarkable moth and butterfly collection, was a published author on natural history, was also a published illustrator (Thomas Say's American Entomology, which he illustrated when still a teenager) and he made beautiful sketches of plants and animals in his studies.
Luca Tern at Callao, near Lima, Peru
He was part of the Wilkes expedition, aka the US Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842, as an expedition artist and a naturalist.
Charles' niece Anna Claypoole Peale (daughter of James) was a miniature portraitist. Here's a beautiful portrait that reminds me of Sophia Williams.
Two of her sisters were also notable painters.
A tromp-l'oeil painting by Margaretta Angelica Peale.
Portrait by Sarah Miriam Peale.
And Charles' nephew, Charles Peale Polk (son of sister Elizabeth Peale) was also a portrait painter. This is his self-portrait.
There, I think I've covered most of the artistic members of this amazing family. I love them. I'm glad they're Americans like me, too. Usually my favorite artists are European, mostly French. If England is the center of the world, France is the sun. The USA is just a little satellite moon. But I'm glad to know I share the moon with such an remarkable family.
Read more!