Background

Rembrandt Peale was born on February 22, 1778 in Richboro, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States, at the Vanarsdalen Farm, where his father, then with the army at Valley Forge, had found refuge for his family during the British occupation of Philadelphia.

Education

Rembrandt Peale completed his studies at private schools in Philadelphia in advance of students of his own age and showed a special interest in literature and a gift for verse-making. He was likewise precocious in the study of drawing and in his thirteenth year painted a creditable self-portrait, his first attempt in oil colors. Besides studying under his father and copying the paintings in his father's gallery he had the opportunity, when he was seventeen, to practise in the school of design which his father and other artists attempted to form in 1795. He attended a course of lectures on chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania to perfect his knowledge of pigments.

Career

In 1795 at the exhibition of the Academy, Rembrandt Peale was represented by five portraits and a landscape. In September 1795, when the elder Peale painted the last of his numerous life portraits of Washington, Rembrandt was accorded the same opportunity. He carried his portrait to Charleston, S. C. , where he claimed to have made ten copies besides painting the portraits of Generals Gadsden and Sumter and Dr. David Ramsay, the historian, for his father's gallery. In 1796 Peale joined with his brother Raphael in establishing in Baltimore a gallery in which to exhibit their paintings, including copies they had made of their father's portraits of distinguished persons. To this they added a cabinet of natural history objects, chiefly duplicates from the elder Peale's collection. Three years later this venture was abandoned. After painting portraits in Maryland Rembrandt Peale returned to Philadelphia and publicly announced in 1800 that to avoid confusion with others of his family he would paint under the name of Rembrandt, an ostentation which he speedily abandoned.

Being then largely dependent upon his father's support, Rembrandt Peale sought other means of employment until his reputation as a painter was established. His father had successfully recovered two skeletons of the mammoth or mastodon and Rembrandt assisted in mounting them and carving the replicas of such bones as were missing. The wide interest in this discovery among naturalists prompted the elder Peale to send one skeleton to Europe in charge of Rembrandt, who was assisted by his younger brother Rubens Peale, then in training as a naturalist. Arriving in England in the autumn of 1802 Rembrandt placed himself under the guidance of Benjamin West and while pursuing his studies painted portraits of Robert Bloomfield, the poet, and Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society, for his father's collection.

In the Royal Academy's exhibition of 1803 Rembrandt Peale was represented by two portraits. While in London he published his Account of the Skeleton of the Mammoth (London, 1802), followed in 1803 by An Historical Disquisition on the Mammoth. As the war with France prevented exhibiting the skeleton in Paris as contemplated, the brothers returned to America in November 1803. In 1804 Peale established a painting room in the State House at Philadelphia, the building having been granted by the legislature as a repository for the elder Peale's gallery and museum. Employed by his father to paint portraits for his collection, he visited Washington where he executed a likeness of President Jefferson and portraits of other prominent characters. In 1805 he assisted in the establishment of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In that year he exhibited thirty portraits. His reputation was further extended by visits to New York and Boston. Commissioned by his father he visited Paris in the spring of 1808 and painted for the latter's collection the portraits of Houdon, Cuvier, Bernardin de St. Pierre, Abbe Huay, Count Rumford, David, and Denon. Denon, the director-general of museums, offered Peale the government patronage if he would remain in France.

Fearing that the disturbed situation in Europe would separate him from his family, he returned to America in October 1808, but to complete his father's commission, again visited Paris in 1809 and remained throughout the following year. He painted largely in encaustic and his work during this and the following decade is generally considered the high point of his art. Upon his return to Philadelphia in November 1810 he painted a large equestrian picture of Napoleon, which was exhibited first at Baltimore in 1811 and later at Philadelphia. He also painted a number of classical subjects. Although urged by his father to confine his talents to portrait painting, and his exhibitions to Philadelphia, Peale determined to establish a gallery and museum in Baltimore with possibly an academy for teaching the fine arts. Securing support for this venture he erected a building and opened his exhibition in 1814.

Rembrandt Peale aimed to emulate his father by maintaining his museum on a strictly scientific and educational basis, but popular support was insufficient to justify the investment and finally his brother Rubens Peale who had managed the Philadelphia Museum came to his assistance and relieved him of the establishment. In the meantime he had executed his large canvas, 24' x 13', "The Court of Death, " which was placed on view in his gallery at Baltimore in 1820 and subsequently exhibited in other cities for a number of years. After leaving Baltimore he practised his art in New York until 1823 when he reopened his gallery and painting room in Philadelphia. During this interval he labored to perfect an ideal likeness of Washington based upon his own and his father's portraits and he then painted a large equestrian picture using his composite studies for the likeness.

In 1825 Rembrandt Peale was again called to New York and during his residence there was elected to succeed John Trumbull as president of the American Academy of Fine Arts. Subsequently his patronage extended to Boston where he resided for a time. While there he became interested in lithography. He executed, among other works, a large head of Washington for which he received the silver medal of the Franklin Institute. In 1828 Peale again went abroad and for two years traveled, chiefly in Italy, copying the works of notable masters, besides painting original studies and some portraits. During his nine months' residence in Florence he exhibited at the Royal Academy his portrait of Washington, which on his return was purchased by the United States government.

Returning to America in September 1830 he published his Notes on Italy (1831) and after residing in New York until 1832 he crossed the ocean for the fifth time, having engaged to paint portraits in England. On his return to America in 1834 he resumed his painting at Philadelphia and in his leisure hours perfected a system for teaching drawing and writing described in his Graphics: A Manual of Drawing and Writing (1835). In 1839 he published his Portfolio of an Artist which contains a number of his original verses. In his last years he devoted much time to his lectures on the portraits of Washington and contributed to magazines articles relating to art and his "Reminiscences. " Rembrandt Peale continued these activities until shortly before his death in Philadelphia in his eighty-third year on October 3, 1860.

Achievements

• Rembrandt Peale was famous as a prolific portrait painter. He was especially acclaimed for his likenesses of presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Peale was one of the founders of the Pennslyvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the founder of the National Academy of Design. His most notable works include General Thomas Sumte (1796), Charles Willson Peale (1812), Washington Before Yorktown (1824), The Sisters, Eleanor and Rosalba Peale (1826), John C. Calhoun (1834), etc.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Gifts Delight Laminated 24x30 Poster: Rembrandt Peale - The Sisters Eleanor and Rosalba Peale

    (Jan Van Eyck - Van Eyck - Arnolfini Portrait - Poster Tag...)

  • Gifts Delight Laminated 24x28 Poster Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale, 1800

    (Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale, 1800 - Poster Tags: ...)

  • Graphics: The Art Of Accurate Delineation (1845)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • Gifts Delight Laminated 16x20 Poster: Rembrandt - Rubens Peale

    (Rembrandt - Rubens Peale - Poster Tags: Rembrandt Rubens ...)

Views

Quotations: "Gas Lights - Without Oil, Tallow, Wicks or Smoke. It is not necessary to invite attention to the gas lights by which my salon of paintings is now illuminated; those who have seen the ring beset with gems of light are sufficiently disposed to spread their reputation; the purpose of this notice is merely to say that the Museum will be illuminated every evening until the public curiosity be gratified. "

"[An artist] will sooner and with more certainty, establish the character of skeletons, than the most learned anatomist, whose eye has not been accustomed to seize on every peculiarity. "

Connections

Rembrandt Peale married in 1798, when barely twenty, Eleanora Mary Short. His second wife was Harriet Caney. By his first wife he had seven daughters and two sons.

Father:

Charles Willson Peale

Mother:

Rachel Brewer Peale

Spouse:

Harriet Cany Peale

Daughter :

Henrietta Peale Griscom

Halfbrother:

Titian Ramsay Peale

Brother:

Raphael Peale

Sister :

Angelica Kauffman Peale Robinson

Sister :

Sophonisba Angusciola Peale Sellers

Brother :

Rubens Peale

Daughter:

Rosalba Peale Underwood

References

• Rembrandt Peale 1778-1860: A Life in the Arts: An Exhibition at The Historical Society of Pennsylvania
• The Art of the Peales in the Philadelphia Museum of Art: Adaptations and Innovations