Charles Willson Peale

Charles Willson Peale was artist, patriot, inventor, and naturalist. He helped shape American self-perception through portraits and contemporary scenes of the Revolutionary War and its leaders, various farmsteads, and the region's developing cities. Peale was the first to provide authentic images of George Washington as well as other Revolutionary War heroes. Whether depicting a planter family or military leader, Peale captured accurate, straightforward likenesses of his subjects, posed within their own setting. His seven sittings during Washington's lifetime are at once an elegant record of Washington's professional growth as well as documentation of an emerging national spirit.

Early Life

Charles Willson Peale was born in Chester, Maryland in April of 1741. Initially trained as a saddle maker, he discovered an interest in art and studied in England for three years. Moving to Annapolis Maryland, he became politically involved in the Sons of Liberty in the years leading up to the Revolution. In the spring of 1776, Peale moved his family to Philadelphia where he immediately enlisted in the Pennsylvania militia. During the American Revolution, he rose to the rank of captain. 

Relationship with George Washington

Washington knew Peale before taking command of the Continental Army. Reverend Jonathan Boucher, parson at St. Anne's Church in Annapolis and tutor of John Parke Custis, first informed Washington about the talented young Peale who was a local artist living in Annapolis. Peale accompanied Custis to Mount Vernon on May 18, 1772 and stayed a fortnight to paint miniatures of Martha Washington and her children, as well as an oil of George Washington in his Virginia militia uniform, reminiscent of his participation in the Seven Years' War in North America

In the Pennsylvania militia, Peale had the opportunity to personally observe General Washington in a variety of situations, including when Washington conferred with Congress in Philadelphia to discuss war strategy. During the Battle of Princeton and Battle of Trenton, Peale himself was a participant. He also shared moments with Washington while painting him in the tense hours at his Pennsylvania headquarters.

Peale painted likenesses of Washington in a variety of mediums, but one of the most renowned is his oil on canvas commissioned by the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, former aide-de-camp Joseph Reed, on January 18, 1779, to be hung in the council chamber. Peale made several replicas of the highly successful 1779 painting with its fallen British and Hessian flags at Washington's feet and British prisoners marching past Nassau Hall. Peale's copies provided Europe with its first authentic likenesses of America's leader. In 1780, Washington personally commissioned Peale to paint the Marquis de Lafayette from life.¹ Between 1795 to 1800, Peale painted cabinet portrait of Washington.

Peale's portraits of Washington from life showing the leader resigning from the military, as President of the Constitutional Convention, and as President of the United States were artistic successes but not financial ones during the economic uncertainties of the postwar period. Peale's portrait gallery of heroes was housed in his natural history museum, a project that increasingly absorbed much of his time. Washington was an annual subscriber to the museum and contributed two golden Chinese pheasants upon their demise, originally gifts to Washington from the Marquis de Lafayette.² Washington supported his work, referring to his abilities as “works of Genius.”³

Personal Life

Peale continued to be involved in civic and public art throughout his life, and his enthusiasm and ideals reflected the revolutionary generation of which he was a part. The fact that Peale's straightforward image of Washington was popularized by the public indicated the national character preferred by the populace and the leader they would choose in 1789.

Peale trained various family members to be artists, and the Peale family of artists represents some of the earliest artists in the United States. They often created copies of their father’s portraits from life. His son, Rembrandt Peale painting Washington from life and later created a portrait of Washington using various artistic examples to best embody his likeness. Peale also trained his maternal nephew Charles Peale Polk, who painted Washington from the likeness of his uncle’s portraits. Other painters in his family included his children Raphaelle Peale, Angelica Kauffman Peale, and Rubens Peale. They often painted members of their family to practice portraiture.

Peale died in February of 1827. 

Revised by Zoie Horecny, Ph.D., 26 June 2025

Notes:

1. “From George Washington to Charles Willson Peale, 12 December 1780,” Founders Online, National Archives.

2. “From George Washington to Charles Willson Peale, 9 January 1787,” Founders Online, National Archives.

3. “From George Washington to Charles Willson Peale, 13 March 1787,” Founders Online, National Archives.

Bibliography:

Richardson, Edgar P. et al., Charles Willson Peale and His World. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1983.

Miller, Lillian B. ed., The Peale Family: Creation of a Legacy, 1770-1870. New York: Abbeville Press, 1996.

Miller, Lillian B., Carol Eaton Hevner. In Pursuit of Fame: Rembrandt Peale, 1778-1860. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1992

Sellers, Charles Coleman. Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1952.

Shadwell, Wendy J., "The Portrait Engravings of Charles Willson Peale," in Eighteenth-Century Prints in Colonial America, ed. by Joan D. Dolmetsch. Williamsburg: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1979.

Ward, David C. and Charles Willson Peale. Charles Willson Peale: Art and Selfhood in the Early Republic. University of California Press, 2004.