Object Details
- Artist
- Charles Willson Peale, 15 Apr 1741 - 22 Feb 1827
- Sitter
- Charles Willson Peale, 15 Apr 1741 - 22 Feb 1827
- 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
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; frame conserved with funds from the Smithsonian Women's Committee
- c. 1791
- Object number
- NPG.89.205
- Restrictions & Rights
- CC0
- Type
- Painting
- 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")
- See more items in
- National Portrait Gallery Collection
- Exhibition
- Out of Many: Portraits from 1600 to 1900
- On View
- NPG, East Gallery 136
- National Portrait Gallery
- Topic
- Self-portrait
- Charles Willson Peale: Male
- Charles Willson Peale: Arts and Culture\Literature\Writer
- Charles Willson Peale: Arts and Culture\Visual Arts\Artist\Painter
- Charles Willson Peale: Arts and Culture\Visual Arts\Artist\Portraitist
- Charles Willson Peale: Arts and Culture\Visual Arts\Founder\Art museum founder
- Charles Willson Peale: Military and Intelligence\Militia\Officer
- Charles Willson Peale: Science and Technology\Scientist\Naturalist
- Charles Willson Peale: Politics and Government\Government official\State Legislator\Pennsylvania
- Portrait
- Record ID
- npg_NPG.89.205
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm49b3a9f49-fb74-4f00-a376-0768a1341410
