Charles Willson Peale and Titian Ramsay Peale, The Long Room, Interior of Front Room in Peale’s Museum, 1822, watercolor over pencil on paper, 14 × 20 3/4 in, Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Director’s Discretionary Fund.
About this Artwork
Titian Peale made this watercolor for his father in preparation for Charles Willson Peale’s painting The Artist in His Museum. It presents the Long Room, filled with natural history specimens, portraits of great men (Humboldt among them), and works of art. Though Peale had hoped in vain his museum would become a national institute, the early plans for a Smithsonian building envisioned a room similar in proportion and function to Peale’s Long Room.