Happy Birthday to Charles Willson Peale
The noted artist, naturalist, inventor, and museum proprietor was born in Maryland on this day in 1741.
While studying under Benjamin West in London in the late 1760s, Peale painted miniatures to earn a living. This double portrait of Matthias and Thomas Bordley was done in 1767 shortly after the two brothers, ages ten and twelve, arrived in England to attend Eaton. The portrait shows the boys studying the classics, posed between a bust of Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, and the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Matthias and Thomas were the sons of the artist's friend and patron John Beale Bordley, a prominent Maryland citizen.
Pictured: Charles Willson Peale, 1741–1827, Matthias and Thomas Bordley, 1767, watercolor on ivory, 3 5/8 x 4 1/8 in. oval, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase and gift of Mr. and Mrs. Murray Lloyd Goldsborough, Jr.
The noted artist, naturalist, inventor, and museum proprietor was born in Maryland on this day in 1741.
While studying under Benjamin West in London in the late 1760s, Peale painted miniatures to earn a living. This double portrait of Matthias and Thomas Bordley was done in 1767 shortly after the two brothers, ages ten and twelve, arrived in England to attend Eaton. The portrait shows the boys studying the classics, posed between a bust of Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, and the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Matthias and Thomas were the sons of the artist's friend and patron John Beale Bordley, a prominent Maryland citizen.