| − | '''Charles Willson Peale''' (Queen Anne’s Co., MD, 1741 – Philadelphia, 1827) was an American Colonial Era [[portrait]] [[painter]], scientist, inventor, founder of museums and art societies; Peale was one of the universal men of the eighteenth century, a man whose talent and interests ran in a hundred different directions: inventor, mechanic, silversmith, watchmaker, millwright, patriot, soldier, politician and naturalist.<ref>http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1955/3/1955_3_40.shtml</ref> He studied under [[Benjamin West]] in London. He also visited the studios of such important British portrait painters as [[Joshua Reynolds]], Francis Cotes and Allan Ramsay and studied the techniques of miniature painting, sculpture and engraving.<ref>http://www.artnet.com/library/06/0659/T065924.asp</ref> | + | '''Charles Willson Peale''' (Queen Anne’s Co., MD, 1741 – Philadelphia, 1827) was an American Colonial Era [[portrait]] [[painter]], scientist, inventor, founder of museums and art societies; Peale was one of the universal men of the eighteenth century, a man whose talent and interests ran in a hundred different directions: inventor, mechanic, silversmith, watchmaker, millwright, patriot, soldier, politician and naturalist.<ref name="AmericanHeritage">http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1955/3/1955_3_40.shtml</ref> He studied under [[Benjamin West]] in London. He also visited the studios of such important British portrait painters as [[Joshua Reynolds]], Francis Cotes and Allan Ramsay and studied the techniques of miniature painting, sculpture and engraving.<ref>http://www.artnet.com/library/06/0659/T065924.asp</ref> |
| − | Peale's faith in the educational value of art led him to establish a painting academy in Philadelphia as early as 1795.<ref>http://www.nga.gov/fcgi-bin/tinfo_f?object=50684</ref> Peale founded the [[Philadelphia]] Museum or the Peale Museum in 1786; later the Peale's [[Baltimore]] Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts occupied the first building erected as a museum in the United States; [[Rembrandt Peale]], his son, opened this museum on August 15, 1814.<ref>http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1955/3/1955_3_40.shtml</ref> During the American Revolution he opposed British mistreatment of the colonists and joined the [[Sons of Liberty]].<ref>[https://americanexperience.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Loyalists-and-Patriots.pdf Loyalists and Patriots]</ref> | + | Peale's faith in the educational value of art led him to establish a painting academy in Philadelphia as early as 1795.<ref>http://www.nga.gov/fcgi-bin/tinfo_f?object=50684</ref> Peale founded the [[Philadelphia]] Museum or the Peale Museum in 1786; later the Peale's [[Baltimore]] Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts occupied the first building erected as a museum in the United States; [[Rembrandt Peale]], his son, opened this museum on August 15, 1814.<ref name="AmericanHeritage"/> During the American Revolution he opposed British mistreatment of the colonists and joined the [[Sons of Liberty]].<ref>[https://americanexperience.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Loyalists-and-Patriots.pdf Loyalists and Patriots]</ref> |
| | Father of 17 children, including the artists [[Raphaelle Peale]], [[Rembrandt Peale]], Rubens Peale and Titian Peale and brother of James Peale, Charles Willson Peale was the patriarch of the [[The Peale Family]], ''the First Family of American art.'' | | Father of 17 children, including the artists [[Raphaelle Peale]], [[Rembrandt Peale]], Rubens Peale and Titian Peale and brother of James Peale, Charles Willson Peale was the patriarch of the [[The Peale Family]], ''the First Family of American art.'' |
| − | Jack-of-all-trades and master of several, Charles Willson Peale was in many respects a boy who never grew up, as several of his contemporaries noted: a pacifist who never lost his love of bright uniforms, an idealist with the manner of a promoter, a moralist who loved a good time. Curious, noisy and upright, he came as close as any man could to embodying the American spirit in all the joy and optimism of its youth.<ref>http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1955/3/1955_3_40.shtml</ref> | + | Jack-of-all-trades and master of several, Charles Willson Peale was in many respects a boy who never grew up, as several of his contemporaries noted: a pacifist who never lost his love of bright uniforms, an idealist with the manner of a promoter, a moralist who loved a good time. Curious, noisy and upright, he came as close as any man could to embodying the American spirit in all the joy and optimism of its youth.<ref name="AmericanHeritage"/> |