Author: James Edward Mitchell
Peale’s parents were Charles, Sr. and Margaret Triggs Peale. At a young age, Charles was apprenticed during 1754 to a tradesman in Chester, Maryland. By age 20, he successfully opened his own business as a tool worker and saddle maker. Following his Maryland business failure, Peale removed to Boston, where he was practiced his trade-craft.

By 1767 Charles W. Peale transferred to study art and portrait painting in London with Benjamin West. During 1770 Peale returned to Maryland and 2 years later he freely advanced his painting talent drawing the famous ¾ length portrait of Virginia Militia Colonel George Washington, wearing his uniform.

By December, 1776 Peale enlisted at Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania and raised in rank to Lieut. in the Philadelphia Militia (3rd) Bttn. that made-up Brig. Gen. John Cadwalader’s Philadelphia Associator’s Bgde. James C. Thompson, author of George Washington’s Mulatto Man: Who was Billy Lee (2015) stated that Peale’s militia co. marched to the Battle of Trenton arriving too late to engage in the fight. Days later, 3 Jan 1777 Peale’s militia co., observed Gen. Cadwalader taking command of the militia bttn, fighting British Army regulars at the Thomas Clarke farm. Commander-in-Chief Gen. George Washington rode his horse directly into the British Infantry firing from the farm house and turned to command the bttn, to direct fire toward the line! After the smoke cleared from musket fire and American artillery, by no small miracle Gen. Washington was alive and unscratched. He led Peale’s company and the militia bttn. in a short pursuit of the retreating British forces.

Charles W. Peale personally was acquainted with George Washington and his Revolutionary War valet and butler named Billy Lee. James C. Thompson, (author) characterized Charles Peale as possibly the most popular fighting portraitist in the American military. After rising to Lieut. Peale served upon several committees’ in Philadelphia and he frequently joined the Pennsylvania State Assembly to conduct their business. He was instrumental for his support in the founding (1805) of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

Over several years following the Revolutionary War Peale painted numerous portraits and miniatures of Washington family members, Hamilton, John Hancock, J. Adams and Ben Franklin.

During 1773 C.W. Peale was recognized for arranging a masterful oil on canvas family painting that reflected a theme of love and friendship in Colonial America. The artist appears within the portrait on the left, holding his palette and supervising the drawing made by his brothers that appear within the painting. Seated within the center of the scene are Rachel Brewer Peale, his first wife, and their daughter Margaret. To the right sits Peale’s mother, Margaret, his sister, Elizabeth, and his daughter, Eleanor. Standing in the scene are Peale’s sister, Margaret Jane and the family nurse, Peggy Durgan. Argus the beloved Peale family dog is painted in front of the scene.

By 1813 the family portrait was installed in the Peale Museum where it remained until it was purchased in 1854 by Thos. Jefferson Bryan, who donated the work of art, along with his entire art collection to the New York Historical Society. Charles W. Peale married Elizabeth Depeyster after his first wife’s death in 1790 and between his two marriages produced seventeen children.

At age 83, he painted a full-length portrait of himself, now in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and he passed away less than 3 years later at his home near Germantown, now a suburb of Philadelphia. He is buried at Saint Peter’s Episcopal Churchyard Cemetery at Philadelphia, PA.