(1774–1825)
In 1834, nine years after his death, Raphaelle Peale was recognized as the first professional still-life painter in America when William Dunlap, this country’s first art historian, wrote:
Raphael [sic] was a painter of portraits in oil and miniature but excelled more in compositions of still life. He may perhaps be considered the first in point of time who adopted this branch of painting in America, and many of his pictures are in collections of men of taste and highly esteemed.[i]
The eldest son of Charles Willson Peale, patriarch of America’s greatest family of artists, Raphaelle was the most talented Peale of his generation. In an era when still life was considered an inferior form of artistic expression, Raphaelle exhibited great conviction by pursuing the theme as diligently as he did. His father repeatedly urged Raphaelle to perfect his skills at portraiture, a far more lucrative pursuit than still life. In July of 1820, Charles Willson wrote: “I hope on the next annuel [sic] Exhibition that you will shine as a Portrait Painter—for as I have always said if you could have confidence in yourself, and paint portraits with the same exactness of finish as you have done in still life, that no Artist could be your superior in that line.”[ii] This passage only hints at the complicated relationship between Charles Willson and his son. Raphaelle, who fought a life-long battle with depression, alcoholism, and the accompanying ill effects on his health, depended on his father for emotional as well as monetary support. One of the fascinating aspects of any study of Raphaelle Peale is how successfully he suppressed his unhappy personal life to paint some of the most elegant, refined, and timeless still lifes in the history of American art.[iii]
Born in Annapolis, Maryland in 1774, Raphaelle Peale was taught by his father and his uncle, James Peale, who also specialized in still-life painting. Raphaelle shared his father’s passion for science and art and became a skilled naturalist and taxidermist. He worked with his father in the Peale Museum in Philadelphia, and in 1792 he traveled to South America to gather specimens for the museum. At first, Peale half-heartedly practiced life-size and miniature portrait painting, but by 1812 he was working almost exclusively on his still lifes. He showed his work at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts annuals when they began in 1811 and continued to be a regular exhibitor there until 1824, the year before his premature death. Despite Charles Willson’s frustration over his son’s choice of specialty, he nonetheless recognized Raphaelle’s special talent, and in 1817 wrote these words of encouragement: “…if you applied [yourself] as you ought to do, you would be the first painter in America…. Your pictures of still-life are acknowledged to be, even by the Painters here, far exceeding all other works of that kind…” [iv] Several of Peale’s still lifes entered important private collections, including those of Robert Gilmore of Baltimore and Frederick Graff of Philadelphia.
[i] William H. Gerdts, Painters of the Humble Truth: Masterpieces of American Still Life 18001-1939 (Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 1981), p. 60.
[ii] Lillian B. Miller, ed., The Peale Family: Creation of a Legacy 1770-1870 (New York: Abbeville Press, 1996), p. 136.
[iii] For further discussion of this topic, see Miller, op. cit., and Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Raphaelle Peale Still Lifes (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1988).
[iv] Cikovsky, p. 104.
