In Pursuit of Fame

Talented son of the eminent federal artist Charles Willson Peale, Rembrandt Peale seemed destined for greatness. From his earliest self-portrait at age thirteen to his later fancy pieces, painted when he was over eighty, Rembrandt was constantly aware of his professional status and never abandoned his intense conviction that his calling was of the highest social importance. Concerned with achieving artistic perfection and the reputation of an American Old Master, Rembrandt traveled - from Philadelphia to Charleston (South Carolina), New York, Boston, and Baltimore, and overseas to London, Paris, and the art centers of Italy - searching for new ideas and techniques, as well as for a compatible society that would rescue him from "a life of mediocrity." In style and range, his art reflects the influence of the older European cultures and demonstrates the cosmopolitan nature of much of American art during the formative years of the American republic.

This first full-length biography of a hitherto insufficiently appreciated American artist traces the course of Rembrandt Peale's artistic development, from the Enlightenment principles of his father through the British portrait tradition, French neoclassicism, and Italian Renaissance and Baroque masters; and it places in context some of his more important works. We see Peale as a Baltimore museum-keeper, a teacher of drawing in Philadelphia, an organizer of professional institutions, public lecturer, writer, son, father, and husband. A complementary essay by Carol Hevner analyzes Peale's style in its different expressions - museum portraits, commissioned works, portraits of family and friends, history paintings, and, most important, his copies of his famous George Washington, Patriae Pater.

Based on the large archive of documents collected by the Peale Family Papers project at the National Portrait Gallery, this biography of Rembrandt Peale details the pains and triumphs of a nineteenth-century artist, forced to earn a livelihood in an unsympathetic environment while striving to create masterpieces that would win eminence for himself and his country. The first major examination of one of America's important early portraitists, In Pursuit of Fame: Rembrandt Peale, 1778-1860 is indispensable for readers interested in the history of art and life in the early American republic.