born Feb. 22, 1778, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, U.S.
died Oct. 3, 1860, Philadelphia, Penn.
U.S. painter and writer.
A son of Charles Willson Peale , he studied with his father at the Royal Academy in London. In Paris 1808–10 he was offered the post of court painter to Napoleon I. His early portrait of Thomas Jefferson (1805) was his masterpiece. Following his father's example, he opened a museum and portrait gallery in Baltimore, where he established the first illuminating gasworks. When he resumed painting, he turned to formal subject pieces (e.g., The Court of Death , 1820) before returning to portraiture, continuing a series of portraits of George Washington .