Artist
Charles Willson Peale

American, 1741–1827
Charles Willson Peale was an American Romanticism painter. 48 works are cataloged here, principally at Metropolitan Museum of Art, most of them watercolors. Charles Willson Peale was born in Chester.
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 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.
Works by Charles Willson Peale
Margaret Strachan (Mrs. Thomas Harwood)
Mrs. Michael Taney (Monica Brooke)
George Washington
Mrs. Joseph Donaldson (Frances Johnston)
Mrs. Charles Willson Peale (Rachel Brewer)
General Henry Knox
Portrait of a Woman
Samuel Mifflin
Nathanael Greene
Mrs. Charles Willson Peale (Rachel Brewer) and Baby Eleanor
Thomas Willing
Arthur St. Clair
James Peale
Mrs. Samuel Mifflin and Her Granddaughter Rebecca Mifflin Francis
George Washington
Richard Montgomery
Joseph Donaldson
Portrait of a Gentleman
Anthony Butler
Portrait of a Lady
Portrait of a Gentleman
Mrs. John Cox (Esther Bowes)
Ennion Williams
Elie Williams
Rebecca Bryan White (Mrs. John White)
Benjamin and Eleanor Ridgely Laming
John Beale Bordley
John Philip de Haas
George Washington at Princeton
Collections represented