Charles Willson Peale
(1741-1827)

Charles Willson Peale was truly the preeminent painter of his generation.  He was born in Queen Anne's County  in the year  1741, apprenticed to a saddler by the time he was 13 years of age.  But Peale soon learned that his real talent lay in painting.   Indeed, Peale traded one of his best saddles with (the moderately well known) John Hesselius in exchange for a few painting lessons.  Soon, a distinguished group of Maryland gentleman had provided Peale with funds to study the trade  in England.  With Benjamin West as his teacher and muse, Peale returned to Maryland with an impressive talent for capturing the spirit of his sitters. 

In the course of his long career, Charles Willson Peale painted the faces of hundreds of men, women, and children.  He was  an inventor, a naturalist, a soldier, and a father to 17 children--many of whom became well-respected artists in their own day.

See:  Sellers, Charles Coleman.  Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale Philadelphia:  American Philosophical Society, 1968.