VI 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 



Italian Sculptor Ceracchi (who afterwards conspired against 

 the life of Buonaparte). Among these Mr. Peale was the 

 only portrait painter in oil. At his house the meetings 

 were held, and the conversations were often interesting un- 

 der all the excitements of imagination and genius; but they 

 ended in a separation into two unproductive parties; the 

 native artists contented with a school of art, and the for- 

 eigners swelling with a mighty scheme of a national 

 Academy. 



In the year 1794 another experiment was made at Mr. 

 Peale's — an academy was formed; some plaister casts were 

 collected, and arrangements were made to draw from the 

 life. When the person (a baker) who was engaged to stand as 

 the model, found himself surrounded by new faces and pene- 

 trating eyes, he shrunk- from the scrutiny, and precipitately 

 fled. In this dilemma Mr. Peale stripped and presented 

 himself as the model to his fellow artists. An exhibition 

 was likewise got up, intended to be annual. It was opened 

 in the Hall of Independence; comprised a very respectable 

 display of pictures, chiefly lent by private gentlemen, and 

 was well attended by the public. 



It was not until ISIO that a foundation could be laid for 

 a permanent Academy. Again the amateurs of the Arts 

 were invited to meet at Mr. Peale's; but their number was 

 so small, and their influence over the public mind so limited, 

 that nothing but the most zealous exertions of Mr. Joseph 

 Hopkinson could have availed in procuring the funds which 

 were necessary to erect a suitable building, and to import 

 from Europe the requisite plaister casts. Mr. Peale and his 

 son, who was recently from Europe, laboured incessantly 

 to mend and display these objects, and to organize the 

 drawing academies. He lived to see and contribute to 

 seventeen annual exhibitions. 



Early rising, temperate repasts, and industrious habits, 

 had invigorated his constitution, and he had reached his 

 eighty-fifth year with but little interruption to his health, 

 and pleasantly talked of living to be at least a hundred years 

 old. The manner of his death was strictly accordant with 

 the peculiarities of his life; for it was not so much the con- 

 sequence of old age as of too much youth, in imprudently 

 carrying his own trunk to get up with a stage which he 

 feared would leave him behind. This induced a violent 

 palpitation and disorder of his heart, from which he had 

 scarcely recovered, when he indiscreetly mounted the high- 

 est ladder at the new building of the Arcade, the upper 

 rooms of which were being constructed to hold his Museum. 

 This brought on a relapse and his speedy and lamented 

 death, in 1827; leaving his Museum as a joint stock to his 

 children; Raphael, Angelica Kaufman, Rembrandt, Ru- 



bens, Sophonisba Carriera, Linnaeus, Franklin, Sybilla, 

 Meriam, Elizabeth, and Titian. 



Few men have passed through a greater variety of scenes 

 and occupations. Perhaps in the organization of his mind 

 there was too great a propensity to indulge in every novel 

 occupation; certainly there was a peculiarity of fancy which 

 controlled him in these enjoyments; he loved to do what 

 nobody around him could do, and exhibited the most ex- 

 traordinary industry, perseverance, and ingenuity to accom- 

 plish his purposes. His chief delight, though of a cheerful 

 and social temper, was to find himself alone in the trackless 

 ocean of experiments, contending with the rough elements 

 and surmounting difficulties as they followed in successive 

 waves never sinking, never despairing. At first a saddler, 

 harness and coach maker; then a silversmith and watchma- 

 ker; it was not till his 26th year that his eyes opened to the 

 boundless fields of art; but in this pursuit he mingled the 

 greatest variety, painting in oil, in crayons, and in minia- 

 ture; modelling in clay, wax and plaister; sawing his own 

 ivory, moulding his glasses, and making the shagreen cases 

 for the miniatures which he painted, at a time when none 

 of these articles could be procured, owing to the derange- 

 ments of a revolutionary war. He made himself a wooden 

 mannequin or lay-figure, upon which to cast his draperies; 

 made a violin and guitar, and assisted in the construction of 

 the first organ built in Philadelphia. But it was chiefly in 

 multitudinous operations connected with his Museum that 

 he found continual employment for his invention and me- 

 chanical propensities. Transparent paintings with change- 

 able effects of light and colour, and figures in motion; the 

 preservation of every variety of animals; the moulding of 

 glass eyes, carving wooden limbs, upon which to stretch 

 the skins of his quadrupeds, with anatomical accuracy, &c. 

 Many precious months of his life were consumed in per- 

 fecting, with Mr. J. H. Hawkins, their Polygraph, which 

 became one of his untiring hobbies, as he never wrote a 

 letter afterwards without preserving a cotemporaneous 

 duplicate. 



For a number of years he supplied the dificiencies of his 

 teeth with ivory of his own manufacture, and finally suc- 

 ceeded in making them of porcelain, not only for himself 

 and family, but for others, as he prided himself on being 

 the only operator in this style in America. 



We shall close this sketch by an observation of Colonel 

 Trumbull: "That an interesting comparison might be 

 drawn between Mr. Peale and his countryman Mr. West, 

 who was a striking instance how much could be accom- 

 plished with moderate genius, by a steady and undeviating 

 course directed to a single object; to become the first His- 

 torical painter of his age; whilst the other, with a more 



