View source for Charles Willson Peale

{{Short description|American painter, military officer, scientist, and naturalist (1741–1827)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox artist
| name          = Charles Willson Peale
| image         = Charles Willson Peale - Charles Willson Peale Self-Portrait - Google Art Project.jpg
| imagesize     = 220
| caption       = Peale's self-portrait, {{circa|1791}}, now housed at the [[National Portrait Gallery (United States)|National Portrait Gallery]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]
| birth_name    =
| birth_date    = {{birth date |1741|4|15}}
| birth_place   = [[Chester, Maryland|Chester]], [[Province of Maryland]], [[British America]]
| death_date    = {{death date and age |1827|2|22|1741|4|15}}
| death_place   = [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], U.S.
| resting_place = [[St. Peter's Episcopal Church (Philadelphia)|Saint Peter's Episcopal Churchyard]] ([[Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania)
| nationality   = American
| field         = [[Painting]]
| training      =
| movement      =
| works         =
| spouse        = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Rachel Brewer<br>|1762|1790|reason=died}}
* {{marriage|Elizabeth de Peyster<br>|1790|1804|reason=died}}
* {{marriage|Hannah Moore<br>|1805|1821|reason=died}}
}}
| patrons       =
| influenced by =
| influenced    =
| awards        =
}}

'''Charles Willson Peale''' (April 15, 1741 – February 22, 1827) was an American painter, military officer, scientist, and naturalist.

In 1775, inspired by the [[American Revolution]], Peale moved from his native [[Maryland]] to [[Philadelphia]], where he set up a painting studio and joined the [[Sons of Liberty]]. During the [[American Revolutionary War]], Peale served in the [[Pennsylvania Militia]] and the [[Continental Army]], participating in several military campaigns. In addition to his military service, Peale also served in the Pennsylvania State Assembly from 1779 to 1780.

Peale's portraits of leading American figures of the late 18th century are some of the most recognizable and prominent from that era. In 1784, he founded the [[Peale's Philadelphia Museum|Philadelphia Museum]], one of the first American museums. More than two centuries after Peale painted his 1779 portrait ''[[Washington at Princeton]]'', the painting sold for $21.5 million, the highest price ever paid for an American portrait.

==Early life==
[[File:Charles Wilson Peale - Self-Portrait with Angelica and Portrait of Rachel - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Peale's ''Self-portrait'' ({{circa|1782–1785}}) with his daughter Angelica as he works on a portrait of his wife Rachel]]
[[File:George Washington at Princeton-PAFA.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Peale's portrait ''[[Washington at Princeton]]'' (1779) sold for $21.3 million in 2005, the most ever paid for a portrait in the United States. It is now housed at [[Yale University Art Gallery]]]]
[[File:C W Peale - The Artist in His Museum.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Peale's ''[[The Artist in His Museum]]'', an 1822 self-portrait now displayed at the [[Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts]] in [[Philadelphia]].]]
[[File:Charles Willson Peale 001.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Peale's ''The Staircase Group'' (1795), a ''[[trompe-l'œil]]'' depicting his sons [[Raphaelle Peale|Raphaelle]] and Titian Peale I]]
[[File:RachelWeeping.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Peale's portrait of his first wife Rachel, who died in 1795, weeping over their daughter Margeret's death from [[smallpox]]]]
[[File:Elizabeth DePeyster Peale (1765 - 1804), by Charles Willson Peale (1741 - 1827).jpg|thumb|upright=1|Peale's portrait of his second wife Elizabeth DePeyster Peale (1765–1804) (1798)]]
[[File:1804 Jeffersons-Polygraph-Monticello Cville VA.jpg|thumb|upright=1|One of Peale's polygraphs used by [[Thomas Jefferson]]]]
[[File:Charles Willson Peale - Plaque.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Plaque in front of Peale's gravestone in [[Philadelphia]] honoring his [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]] service]]
[[File:Charles Willson Peale - Gravestone.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Gravestone of Peale and Elizabeth DePeyster at [[St. Peter's Episcopal Church (Philadelphia)|St. Peter's Episcopal Church]] in Philadelphia]]

Peale was born on April 15, 1741, in [[Chester, Maryland]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Maryland Historical Markers: Birthplace of Charles Willson Peale |url=http://mht.maryland.gov/historicalmarkers/DetailsDirect.aspx?Marker_ID=RM-633 |website=Maryland Historical Trust |publisher=Maryland Historical Society |access-date=October 5, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180412175038/http://mht.maryland.gov/historicalmarkers/DetailsDirect.aspx?Marker_ID=RM-633 |archive-date=April 12, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> He was the son of Charles Peale (1709–1750) and his wife Margaret Triggs (1709–1791). Peale had a younger brother, [[James Peale]] (1749–1831), and was the brother-in-law of [[Nathaniel Ramsey]], who would go on to serve as a delegate to the [[Congress of the Confederation]].

==Career==
Four years after his father's death in 1750, Peale, at age 13, became an apprentice to saddle maker Nathan Waters.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vol. 38, No. 3, 1914 of The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography on JSTOR |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/i20086173 |access-date=2022-04-11 |website=www.jstor.org |language=en}}</ref> When he reached maturity, Peale opened his own saddle shop.<ref>[[Barratt, Carrie Rebora]], and Lori Zabar (2010). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=YHKoX40qL7EC&pg=PA34 American Portrait Miniatures in the Metropolitan Museum of Art]''. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 34. {{ISBN|1588393577}}.</ref>

In 1764, Peale joined [[Sons of Liberty]], an organization of the [[Thirteen Colonies]] that proved influential in organizing and paving the way for the [[American Revolution]].<ref>Jennifer Courtney & Courtney Sanford: "Marvelous To Behold" Classical Conversations (2018)</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://americanart.si.edu/artist/charles-willson-peale-3720https://americanart.si.edu/artist/charles-willson-peale-3720|title=Charles Willson Peale}}</ref> He proved unsuccessful in saddle making as a career and then tried fixing clocks and working with metals, but both of these endeavors also failed. He then took up painting.

Finding that he had a talent for painting, especially portraiture, Peale studied for a time under [[John Hesselius]] and [[John Singleton Copley]]. [[John Beale Bordley]] and friends eventually raised enough money for him to travel to England to take instruction from [[Benjamin West]]. Peale studied with West for three years beginning in 1767, afterward returning to North America and settling in [[Annapolis, Maryland]]. There, he taught painting to his younger brother, [[James Peale]], who in time also became a noted artist.

===American Revolution===
In 1775, Peale's enthusiasm for the [[American Revolution]] and the new national government led him to move from Maryland to [[Philadelphia]], then the national capital, where he began painting portraits of notable Americans and visitors from overseas. His estate, now located at [[La Salle University]] in Philadelphia, is now open to the public. Peale also recruited troops for the [[Pennsylvania militia]], which ultimately joined with other militias to create the [[Continental Army]], commanded by [[George Washington]]. In the Pennsylvania militia, Peale rose to the rank of captain and participated in several battles including the [[Battle of Trenton]] and [[Battle of Princeton]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/charles-willson-peale | title=Charles Willson Peale }}</ref> While in combat, he painted miniature portraits of various officers in the Continental Army. He produced enlarged versions of these in later years. After the Revolutionary War, he served in the Pennsylvania state assembly for a year, from 1779 to 1780, and then returned to painting full-time in Philadelphia.

Peale was a prolific artist. He completed portraits of scores of historic figures, including [[Benjamin Franklin]], [[John Hancock]], [[Thomas Jefferson]], [[Alexander Hamilton]], [[James Mitchell Varnum]], and George Washington. In 1771, Washington sat for a portrait with Peale, and he later sat for six additional sittings. Using the seven portraits he painted of Washington, Peale produced close to 60 portraits of Washington. In January 2005, one of them, Peale's ''[[Washington at Princeton]]'' sold for $21.3 million (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=21300000|start_year=2005}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}), setting a record for the highest price paid for a North American portrait.

In 1794, Peale designed the first state [[seal of Maryland]].

One of his most celebrated paintings is ''The Staircase Group'' (1795), a double portrait of his sons Raphaelle and Titian, is painted in the ''[[trompe-l'œil]]'' style<ref>[http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/trompe-info.shtm ''Deceptions and Illusions: Five Centuries of Trompe l'Oeil Painting''], National Gallery of Art</ref> and appears today in the [[Philadelphia Museum of Art]]. While interplaying with space and illusion, the painting also subtly commented on political debates about nationalism, education, and civic identity in the early America.<ref name = "Bellion2003">{{Cite journal |last=Bellion |first=Wendy |date=2003 |title=Illusion and Allusion: Charles Willson Peale's "Staircase Group" at the Columbianum Exhibition |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3109434 |journal=American Art |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=19–39 |doi=10.1086/444689 |jstor=3109434 |issn=1073-9300|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Philadelphia Museum===
{{main |Peale's Philadelphia Museum}}
Peale had a great interest in [[natural history]], and organized the first U.S. scientific expedition in 1801. These two major interests combined in his founding of the [[Peale's Philadelphia Museum|Philadelphia Museum]] in 1784, also known as Peale's museum. It housed a diverse collection of botanical, biological, and archaeological specimens, along with hundreds of pictures.<ref name="Bellion2003" /><ref name="Philadelphia Encyclopedia">{{cite web |last1=Diethorn |first1=Karie |title=Peale's Philadelphia Museum |url=https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/peales-philadelphia-museum/ |website=Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia |access-date=27 April 2024}}</ref>
In 1786, Peale was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1786&year-max=1786&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-04-06|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

The museum contained a large variety of birds which Peale himself acquired, and in many instances mounted, having taught himself taxidermy. In 1792, Peale initiated a correspondence with Thomas Hall, of the Finsbury Museum, City Road, Finsbury, London proposing to purchase British stuffed items for his museum. Eventually, an exchange system was established between the two, whereby Peale sent American birds to Hall in exchange for an equal number of British birds. This arrangement continued until the end of the century. The Peale Museum was the first to display a [[mastodon]] skeleton (which in Peale's time were referred to as [[mammoth]] bones; these common names were amended by [[Georges Cuvier]] in 1800, and his proposed usage is that employed today) that Peale found in [[New York (state)|New York]]. Peale worked with his son to mount the skeleton for display.

The display of the mammoth bones entered Peale into a long-standing debate between [[Thomas Jefferson]] and [[Comte de Buffon]]. Buffon argued that Europe was superior to the Americas biologically, which was illustrated through the size of animals found there. Jefferson referenced the existence of these "mammoths" (which he believed still roamed northern regions of the continent) as evidence for a greater biodiversity in North America. Peale's display of these bones drew attention from Europe, as did his method of re-assembling large skeletal specimens in three dimensions.

The museum was among the first to adopt [[Linnaean taxonomy]]. This system drew a stark contrast between Peale's museum and his competitors who presented their artifacts as mysterious oddities of the natural world.

The museum underwent several moves during its existence. At various times it was located in several prominent buildings, including [[Independence Hall]] and the original home of the [[American Philosophical Society]].

The museum eventually failed, in large part because Peale was unsuccessful at obtaining government funding. After his death, the museum was sold to, and split up by, showmen [[P. T. Barnum]] and [[Moses Kimball]].<ref name="museum">{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wIBIYhO6-HIC&pg=PA71 | title=Museum Masters: Their Museums and Their Influence | publisher=Rowman Altamira | author=Alexander, Edward P. | year=1995 | pages=43–72| isbn=9780761991311 }}</ref>

==Personal life==
In 1762, Peale married Rachel Brewer (1744–1790), who bore him ten children, most of them named for Peale's favorite male and female artists. Several of his sons and daughters also pursued careers as painters, including:

* Angelica Kauffman Peale (1775–1853), who was named for [[Angelica Kauffman]], Peale's favorite female painter<ref>{{cite book|title=From Slave Ship to Harvard: Yarrow Mamout and the History of an African ...|page=149|isbn=9780823239504|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TqEgt9jIeIYC&pg=PA149|last1=Johnston|first1=James H.|year=2012|publisher=Fordham Univ Press }}</ref>
* [[Raphaelle Peale]] (1774–1825), who some consider to be the first professional American painter of still-life
* [[Rembrandt Peale]] (1778–1860), portrait painter, inventor, businessman, [[Peale Museum|museum owner/operator]] in [[History of Baltimore|Baltimore]]. He founded the Gas Light Company of Baltimore in 1817, now [[Baltimore Gas and Electric|Baltimore Gas and Electric Company]] (BGE), and was the father of artist [[Rosalba Carriera Peale]].<ref name="Karpel1979">{{cite book |last1=Karpel |first1=Bernard |last2=Art |first2=Archives of American |title=Arts in America: a bibliography |date=1979 |publisher=Published for the Archives of American Art by the Smithsonian Institution Press |isbn=9780874745788 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O-FUAAAAMAAJ |access-date=May 16, 2019 |language=en}}</ref>
* [[Rubens Peale]] (1784–1865), museum administrator and artist.
* [[Sophonisba Angusciola Peale]] (1786–1859), ornithologist. She married Coleman Sellers (1781–1834) in 1805. She was the mother of [[Coleman Sellers II]].
* [[Titian Ramsay Peale I]] (1780–1798), ornithologist. He died at the age of 18.

After Rachel's death in 1790, Peale married Elizabeth de Peyster (1765–1804), a descendant of [[Johannes de Peyster]], the next year. With his second wife, he had six additional children, including:

* Charles Linnaeus Peale (1794–1832), who was named for [[Carl Linnaeus|Charles Linnaeus]], the Swedish botanist and zoologist
* Elizabeth De Peyster Peale (1802–1857), who married William Augustus Patterson (1792–1833) in 1820
* [[Franklin Peale]] (1795–1870), who became the Chief Coiner at the [[Philadelphia Mint]]
* [[Titian Peale|Titian Ramsay Peale II]] (1799–1885), explorer, ornithologist, scientific illustrator, and photographer

In 1805, Peale married Hannah Moore, a [[Quakers|Quaker]] from Philadelphia, who became his third wife. She helped to raise the younger children from his previous two marriages.

Peale's slave, [[Moses Williams (artist)|Moses Williams]], was also trained in the arts while growing up in the Peale household and later became a professional [[silhouette]] artist.<ref>{{cite journal |last=DuBois Shaw |first=Gwendolyn |url=http://www.amphilsoc.org/sites/default/files/proceedings/490102ed.pdf |title=''Moses Williams, Cutter of Profiles'': Silhouettes and African American Identity in the Early Republic |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150501080720/http://www.amphilsoc.org/sites/default/files/proceedings/490102ed.pdf |archive-date=May 1, 2015 |journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society |volume=149 |issue=1 |date=March 2005 |access-date=March 8, 2015}}</ref>

In 1810, Peale purchased a farm in [[Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Germantown]], where he intended to retire. He named this estate [[Belfield (Philadelphia)|Belfield]] and cultivated extensive gardens there. After Hannah's death in 1821, Peale lived with his son Rubens and sold Belfield in 1826. Peale died on February 22, 1827, and was buried at [[St. Peter's Episcopal Church (Philadelphia)|St. Peter's Episcopal Church]] in [[Philadelphia]] alongside his wife Elizabeth DePeyster.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.stpetersphila.org/about-st-peters/history/|title=History|website=St. Peter's Church}}</ref>

==Expertise==
A [[Polymath|Renaissance man]], Peale had expertise not only in painting but also in many diverse fields, including [[carpentry]], [[dentistry]], [[optometry]], [[shoemaking]], and [[taxidermy]]. In 1802, [[John Isaac Hawkins]] patented the second official [[physiognotrace]], a mechanical drawing device, and partnered with Peale to market it to prospective buyers. Peale sent a watercolor sketch of the physiognotrace, along with a detailed explanation, to [[Thomas Jefferson]]. The drawing is now held with the Jefferson Papers in the Library of Congress.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Penley Knipe |year=2002 |title=Paper Profiles: American Portrait Silhouettes |journal=Journal of the American Institute for Conservation |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=203–223 |doi=10.1179/019713602806082575 |s2cid=192205617 }}</ref>

Around 1804, Peale obtained the American patent rights to the [[Polygraph (duplicating device)|polygraph]] from its inventor John Isaac Hawkins, about the same time as the purchase of one by Thomas Jefferson. Peale and Jefferson collaborated on refinements to this device, which enabled a copy of a handwritten letter to be produced simultaneously with the original.

Peale wrote several books. Two of these were ''An Essay on Building Wooden Bridges'' (1797) and ''An Epistle to a Friend on the Means of Preserving Health'' (1803).

== Legacy and honors ==
* Three of his sons, Rembrandt Peale, Raphaelle Peale, and Titian Ramsay Peale, became noted artists.
* The [[World War II]] cargo [[Liberty Ship]] S.S. ''Charles Willson Peale'' was named in his honor.

== Notable works ==
<gallery>
File:Morris, Mrs. Robert (3-4 length) - NARA - 532937.jpg|''Mrs. Mary [White] Morris'' (1763)
File:Robert Morris by Charles Willson Peale, c. 1782 (New Orleans Mus of Art 78.2) - wide crop.jpg|''[[Robert Morris (financier)|Robert Morris]]'' (1763)
File:Charles Willson Peale - Anne Catharine Hoof Green - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[Anne Catherine Hoof Green]]'' (1769)
File:Nancy Hallam as Fidele in Shakespeare's Cymbeline Charles Willson Peale 1771.jpeg|''[[Nancy Hallam]] as Fidele in Shakespeare's ''[[Cymbeline]] (1771)
File:Charles Willson Peale, American - Portrait of John and Elizabeth Lloyd Cadwalader and their Daughter Anne - Google Art Project.jpg|''Portrait of John and Elizabeth Lloyd Cadwalader and their Daughter Anne'' (1772)
File:Washington 1772.jpg|''George Washington in uniform, as colonel of the First Virginia Regiment'' (1772)
File:John Philip de Haas SC-000269.jpg|''[[John Philip de Haas]]'' (1772) 
File:Peale, Charles Wilson - Henrietta Maria Bordley, 1773, age 10.jpg|''Henrietta Maria Bordley at age 10'' (1773), Honolulu Academy of Arts
File:МиниатюраДжВашингтон002.jpg|''Miniature portrait of [[George Washington]]'' (1775–76)
File:Martha Washington.jpg|Locket Engraving of [[Martha Washington]] (1776)
File:Charles Willson Peale - Mrs. James Smith and Grandson - Google Art Project.jpg|''Mrs. James Smith and Grandson'' (1776) (see [[William Smith (Maryland politician)|William Smith]])
File:Peale 75 11 v1 KW 200904 XL-808x1024.jpg|William Smith and his grandson Robert Smith Williams
File:Mrs. Samuel Mifflin and Her Granddaughter Rebecca Mifflin Francis.jpg|''Mrs. Samuel Mifflin and Her Granddaughter Rebecca Mifflin Francis'' (1777–1780)
File:Charles Willson Peale - Portrait of Thomas Willing.jpg|[[Thomas Willing]]
File:Mrs. Thomas Willing (Ann McCall) and Her Son William Shippen Willing.jpg|Mrs. Thomas Willing (Ann McCall) and Her Son William Shippen Willing
File:Washington peale.jpg|''Portrait of [[George Washington]]'' (1779)
File:Charles Willson Peale - John Laurens - Google Art Project.jpg|''Miniature of [[John Laurens]]'' (1780)
File:Baron Steuben by Peale, 1780.jpg|''[[Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben|Baron Frederick William von Steuben]]'' (1780)
File:Armand Tuffin de La Rouërie (Charles Willson Peale).jpg|''[[Charles Armand Tuffin, marquis de la Rouërie|Armand Tuffin de La Rouërie]]'' (1782)
File:ArthurStClairOfficialPortrait-restored.jpg|''[[Arthur St. Clair]]'' (1782)
File:William Moultrie portrait.jpg|''[[William Moultrie]]'' (1782)
File:greene portrait.jpg|''[[Nathanael Greene]]'' (1783)
File:Benjamin Lincoln.png|''[[Benjamin Lincoln]]'' (1784)
File:Henry Knox by Peale.jpg|''[[Henry Knox]]'' (1784)
File:George Washington at Princeton-PAFA.jpg|''George Washington at the [[Battle of Princeton]]'' (1784)
File:Washington, Lafayette & Tilghman at Yorktown.jpg|''Washington, [[Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette|Lafayette]] & [[Tench Tilghman|Tilghman]] at Yorktown'' (1784)
File:Brooklyn Museum - Mrs. David Forman and Child - Charles Willson Peale - overall.jpg|''Mrs. David Forman and Child'' ({{circa|lk=no|1785}}), [[Brooklyn Museum]]
File:John Hazelwood, Peale.jpg|''[[John Hazelwood]]'' (178?)
File:Timothy Matlack.jpg|''[[Timothy Matlack]]'' ({{circa|lk=no|1790}})
File:Jefferson-peale.jpg|''[[Thomas Jefferson]]'' (1791)
File:CWPeale .jpg|''[[Charles Pettit]]'' (1792)
Great Seal of Maryland (1794–1817).jpg|The obverse and reverse of the 1794 to 1817 state [[seal of Maryland]], designed by Peale.
File:Charles Willson Peale - David Rittenhouse - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[David Rittenhouse]]'' (1796)
File:Joseph Brant by Charles Willson Peale 1797.jpg|''[[Joseph Brant]]'' (1797)
File:James Wilkinson.jpg|''[[James Wilkinson]]'' (1797)
File:James Mitchell Varnum.jpg|''[[James Mitchell Varnum]]'' (1804)
File:C W Peale - The Exhumation of the Mastadon.jpeg|''Exhuming the First American Mastodon'' (1806)
File:Meriwether Lewis-Charles Willson Peale.jpg|''[[Meriwether Lewis]]'' (1807)
File:William Clark-Charles Willson Peale.jpg|''[[William Clark (explorer)|William Clark]]'' (1810)
File:Portrait of Yarrow Mamout (Muhammad Yaro), 1819. Charles Willson Peale.jpg|''[[Portrait of Yarrow Mamout|Yarrow Mamout]]'' (1819)
</gallery>

== See also ==
* [[Peale's Barber Farm Mastodon Exhumation Site]]
* [[George Escol Sellers]], grandson who was an inventor
* [[Gerard Krefft#"The New Museum Idea"|"The New Museum Idea"]]

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

'''Sources'''
* Lily Bita, ''Charles Willson Peale, the patriarch'' "Apodemon Epos" Magazine of European Art Center (EUARCE) of Greece, 2st issue 1997 p.&nbsp;3

== Further reading ==
*Miller, Lillian B. 1980. ''The Collected Papers Of Charles Willson Peale And His Family: A Guide and Index to the Microfiche Edition''
*Miller, Lillian B. (editor). 1983 - 2000 ''Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family Volumes 1-5:''  Yale University Press
*[[David C. Ward|Ward, David C.]] 2004 ''Charles Willson Peale: Art and Selfhood in the Early Republic'' Berkeley, California : University of California Press

== External links ==
{{Commons}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120304151708/http://www.reynoldahouse.org/discover/collections/selected_works.php Reynolda House Museum of American Art: Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Robinson, 1795]
* [http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15324coll10/id/1303/rec/129 ''Charles Willson Peale and His World''] from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
* [http://www.amphilsoc.org/mole/view?docId=ead/Mss.B.P31-ead.xml Peale-Sellers Family Collection at the American Philosophical Society]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930045439/http://www.berkshiremuseum.org/galleries/art_culture.html Portrait of General David Foreman, Berkshire Museum]
* [http://findingaid.winterthur.org/html/HTML_Finding_Aids/COL0396.htm The Winterthur Library] Overview of an archival collection on Charles Willson Peale.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20001120010400/http://www.lasalle.edu/commun/history/articles/pealeweb.htm History of Peale at Belfield, now the grounds of La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA]
* [http://www.getty.edu/vow/ULANFullDisplay?find=peale%2C+charles%25&role=&nation=&prev_page=1&subjectid=500017914 Union List of Artist Names, Getty Vocabularies.] ULAN Full Record Display for Charles Willson Peale. Getty Vocabulary Program, Getty Research Institute. Los Angeles, California.
* [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g04097 James Madison, Bust Portrait Miniature] by Peale from the *[https://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/ Rare Book and Special Collection Division] at The [[Library of Congress]]
*[https://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/images/kitty.jpg Catherine "Kitty" Floyd, Bust Portrait Miniature] by Peale from the [https://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/ Rare Book and Special Collection Division] at The [[Library of Congress]]

{{Charles Willson Peale|state=expanded}}
{{de Peyster family tree}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peale, Charles Willson}}
[[Category:1741 births]]
[[Category:1827 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century American painters]]
[[Category:18th-century American male artists]]
[[Category:19th-century American male artists]]
[[Category:19th-century American painters]]
[[Category:American male painters]]
[[Category:American slave owners]]
[[Category:American portrait painters]]
[[Category:Burials at St. Peter's churchyard, Philadelphia]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:Museum founders]]
[[Category:Pennsylvania militiamen in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:People from colonial Maryland]]
[[Category:People from Queen Anne's County, Maryland]]
[[Category:Peale family|Charles]]
[[Category:Sibling artists]]
[[Category:Trompe-l'œil artists]]