The Artist in his Museum, by Charles Willson Peale, 1822.
Credit: Courtesy of The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Gift of Mrs. Sarah Harrison (The Joseph Harrison Jr. Collection), 1878.1
The Artist in his Museum, by Charles Willson Peale, 1822.
Credit: Courtesy of The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Gift of Mrs. Sarah Harrison (The Joseph Harrison Jr. Collection), 1878.1.2
A man of broad interests and talents, Philadelphian Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) painted more than 300 portraits of prominent American men and women. In this famous 1822 self-portrait titled The Artist in his Museum, 1822, Peale placed himself in front of the main exhibit room to his natural history museum - the nation's first - then located on the second floor of Independence Hall.