1778 - 1860
The second son of artist Charles Willson Peale, Rembrandt Peale followed his father's interests closely. As a young teenager he had begun to paint portraits, by 17 had made his first portrait of George Washington. He aided his father's excavation of two mastodon skeletons in 1801, and the following year traveled to London, where he exhibited the skeleton and studied with Benjamin West. Peale returned to Europe in 1808 to make portraits of important men for the gallery his father had established in Philadelphia. After Peale's return to Philadelphia in 1810, his career was varied; he became proprietor of his father's museum, taught art, wrote a popular drawing manual, pursued technological experiments, and continued to paint portraits and allegorical works. He also produced over seventy copies of his famous portrait of Washington, calling himself "the only painter living who ever saw Washington." Brady included this portrait in a special "Artist's Souvenir," along with images of Willam Page, Frederick Church, and Charles Loring Elliott.
Mathew Brady Studio
Albumen silver print
(carte de visite), ca. 1864
7.5 cm x 4.6 cm (2 15/16 x 1 13/16 inches)
National Portrait Gallery,
Smithsonian Institution,
Washington D.C.