PEALE, REMBRANDT

born Feb. 22, 1778, Bucks County, Pa. died Oct. 3, 1860, Philadelphia U.S. painter, writer, and portraitist of prominent figures in Europe and the post-Revolutionary U.S. One of the sons of Charles Willson Peale, he studied first with his father, whose sculpturesque Neoclassical style is reflected in Thomas Jefferson (1805; New York Historical Society)Rembrandt Peale's acknowledged masterpiece and the best existing portrait of Jefferson. Peale continued his training at the Royal Academy in London. Between 1808 and 1810 he went to Paris, where his work was admired by Jacques-Louis David, and he was offered the post of court painter to Napoleon. Apparently because of unfavourable criticism, he ceased to paint for several years, and, following his father's example, he opened a museum and portrait gallery in Baltimore, where he also established the first illuminating-gas works. He sold his museum in 1822; it is now known as the Peale Museum and is devoted to local history. When he took up painting again he was ambitious to rise above portraiture, so he turned to formal subject pieces. The Court of Death (1820; Detroit Institute of Arts) was the culmination of this series. Peale exhibited this painting throughout the country, earning over $8,000 during the first year. With equal vigour he promoted his portrait of George Washington (1823; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia), seeking to replace the popular accepted likeness of Washington, Gilbert Stuart's Athenaeum head (1796), with his own work. He had painted Washington from life in 1795, and of this later likeness he painted 76 replicas. Peale's painting and writingNotes on Italy (1831), Portfolio of an Artist (1839)occupied him for the remainder of his life.