Object Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
58.P.84 |
Object Name |
Painting |
Title |
Peale's Museum |
Artist |
Peale, James, Sr. |
Date |
1784-94 |
Description |
An abbreviated view of a cluster of building rooftops. In the foreground is a wooden fence, with articles of clothing hanging over the top. A dark brown roof with clerestory windows and a red chimney dominates the middle ground. To the right is a triangular-shaped, architectural protrusion with a skylight. Behind the dark brown roof is a red building with one clerestory window and a chimney. In front of the red building on the left middle is a brown, bowed roof. The top of a large tree can be seen behind the buildings in the top right corner. The background is a pale blue color. Unsigned and undated. |
Label |
The Peale Museum, the first of its kind in the United States, is portrayed in this tiny oil sketch. Founded by Charles Willson Peale, the artist's brother, the Museum displayed paintings, sculptures and a large collection of taxidermied birds and animals. The long structure in the center is an innovative, sky-lighted picture gallery, built in 1782 for Peale's portraits of revolutionaries and men of science. In the structure on the right with a triangular roof, Peale showed "moving pictures," or paintings with moveable parts highlighted by shifting lights. In a later painting now at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, James's nephew Rubens Peale expanded upon this sketch, adding a garden and a "Peale Museum" sign to the scene. |
Medium |
Oil on wood |
Dimensions |
H-6.938 W-9.375 D-1.125 inches |
Dimension Details |
Framed |
Credit line |
American Philosophical Society |
Search Terms |
18th century eighteenth century painting landscape Philadelphia Peale Peale Museum |