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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
OF 
CISAMIiES WILIiSOX FEALE. 
The records of Natural Histoiy and of the Fine Arts in 
this country would be incomplete, without some notice of a 
man who was among the earliest to cultivate a taste for 
Painting, and the first to establish a Museum of Natural His- 
tory, even when the name of Museum was scarcely recog- 
nized from the European dictionaries. It would require 
more time than we can now bestow, to perform this duty 
with the minuteness which might be desired. We will, 
therefore, content ourselves with a slight sketch of his va- 
ried career. 
His father, Charles Peale, is still remembered by some 
of the oldest inhabitants of Maryland as a gentleman of libe- 
ral education and polite manners; greatly respected as a 
teacher at Chestertown, where he occasionally officiated in 
the pulpit, when the clergyman of the parish happened to 
be absent. He was a native of Rutlandshire in England; 
proud of the freedom which Britons enjoyed, but still 
prouder of the advantages which he foresaw were to be de- 
veloped here. He died in the year 1750, leaving a widow 
and five children, of whom the eldest was Charles Willson, 
the subject of the present memoir; Margaret Jane, who 
first married a British officer, afterwards Colonel Nathaniel 
Ramsay; St. George, who was distinguished as the head of 
the Land Office; Elizabeth Digby, who married Captain 
Polk; and James, who has been long distinguished as a 
painter of miniatures and still life. 
Charles Willson Peale was born at Chestertown, on the 
eastern shore of Maryland, April 16th, 1741. At an early 
age he was bound apprentice to a saddler in Annapolis; 
and the habits of industry which he acquired under the ob- 
ligations of that servitude, gave a character to the labours 
of his whole life, to which was added a perseverance from 
his own peculiar temperament, which seemed to delight in 
conquering difficulties. 
He was married before he was twenty-one years of age, 
and for several years carried on the business of his appren- 
ticeship; to which he successively added coach, clock and 
watch making, and something of the silversmith business. 
1 
But this variety of occupation, though it amused the eager 
and volatile fancy of a youth of very sanguine temperament, 
instead of advancing his interest, only accumulated around 
him embarrassments which distressed him for a long time. 
Hitherto he had thought but little of drawing; yet he 
had copied some prints with a pen and ink, had coloured 
prints on glass, and even painted an Adam and Eve from 
the inspiration of Milton. It was on a visit to Norfolk, 
where he went to purchase leather, that seeing a portrait 
and some landscapes painted by a Mr. Frazier, — instead of 
being stimulated by a display of excellence to aspire to excel- 
cnce in art — it was the badness of the performances which en- 
couraged him in the idea of surpassing them. He therefore se- 
cretly procured some pigments and canvass from a coach ma- 
ker, and soon surprised his friends by a landscape and por- 
trait of himself, in which he was represented holding a palette 
and brushes in his hand, with a clock in the background. He 
never could remember to whom he had given this portrait, 
or where it had been mislaid, till forty years afterwards, it 
was discovered tied up as a bag, and containing a pound or 
two of whiting; having travelled, unopened, during the 
revolutionary struggles, from place to place. This picture 
immediately drew him into notice, and procured him em- 
ployment, still further to the disadvantage of his original 
business. 
His mind was now wholly bent on painting, and it was 
necessary to procure the proper materials for it. He had 
never seen an easel or palette, and knew only the most 
common colours which the coach painters then used. For 
this purpose he travelled to Philadelphia, which was then 
a journey of some fatigue and peril; and in the well fur- 
nished shop of Christopher Marshall, was bewildered by 
the variety of colours, the names of which he had never be- 
fore heard. Some book on painting might relieve him from 
this embarassment, and Rivington’s bookstore furnished him 
with the ie Handmaid to the 1 Arts.” This, in the solitude 
of his lodgings, he studied day and night for nearly a week, 
before he could venture upon the selection and purchase of 
