thumb|Raphaelle Peale (lower) and his brother [[Titian Ramsay Peale I|Titian as painted by his father Charles Willson Peale in the "Staircase Group" (1795)]]

Raphaelle Peale (sometimes spelled Raphael Peale; February 17, 1774 – March 4, 1825) is considered the first professional American painter of still-life.

Biography

Peale was born in Annapolis, Maryland, the fifth child, though eldest surviving, of the painter Charles Willson Peale and his first wife Rachel Brewer. He grew up in Philadelphia, and spent his life there in a home at the corner of 3rd and Lombard. Like his siblings (almost all of whom were named after famous artists or scientists), Raphaelle was trained by his father as an artist. Early in his career, the pair collaborated on portraits. On some commissions, Raphaelle painted miniatures while his brother, Rembrandt, painted full-size portraits.

In 1793, he made a trip to South America in order to collect specimens for the Peale Museum founded by his father. His first professional exhibition was in 1795 at the age of 21. In 1797, with his brother Rembrandt, he traveled to Charleston, South Carolina, where they attempted to establish another museum. The plan fell through, however, and Raphaelle returned to painting miniatures.

He married Martha (Patty) McGlathery at the age of twenty, and with her had eight children. For about two years beginning in 1803, Peale toured Virginia with the "physiognotrace", a profile making machine, with which he was briefly successful. By 1806 he had begun to suffer the symptoms of arsenic and mercury poisoning brought on by his work as a taxidermist in his father's museum. His style may have been influenced by Spanish still life paintings he saw on his trip to Mexico and by the two works by Juan Sanchez Cotan, exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1816. Most of Peale's paintings are small in scale, and depict a few objects—usually foodstuffs—arranged on a tabletop before a darkened background.

A notable exception to this is his trompe-l'œil, Venus Rising from the Sea—A Deception (also entitled After the Bath, 1822, in the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art). This painting serves as a distinct thematic departure from his other work. While the dark backdrop is consistent with his still life works, there were themes of this work that make it unique amongst Peale's other works. Instead of featuring food, the subject is Venus, who is just barely visible from behind the napkin covering her. This theme of covering is consistent with a previous work of his, Peaches Covered by a Handkerchief. By covering the subject, Peale introduced a theme of mystery to his painting which has survived to this day.  The act of covering a nude figure was not new to the world of art, however Peale took this choice literally when painting the cover into the painting itself.  The mystery of this work is compounded by the lack of clear date on the painting itself due to a smudged last digit.

Notable works

<gallery mode="packed" heights="170px">

File:Absalom-Jones Peale.jpg|Portrait of Absalom Jones, 1810, Delaware Art Museum

File:Cheese with three crackers raphaelle peale.jpg|Cheese with three crackers, 1813

Image:Raphaelle Peale - Melons and Morning Glories - Google Art Project.jpg|Melons and Morning Glories, 1813

File:'Orange and Book' by Raphaelle Peale, c. 1817.jpg|Still Life with Orange and Book, 1815

File:Still Life Basket of Peaches by Raphaelle Peale 1816.jpeg|Still Life: Basket of Peaches, 1816

File:Brooklyn Museum - Still Life with Cake - Raphaelle Peale - overall.jpg|Still Life with Cake, 1816

Raphaelle Peale - Still Life with Oranges - Google Art Project.jpg|Still Life with Oranges, 1818

File:Raphaelle Peale - Still Life with Cake (1818).jpg|Still Life with Cake, 1818, Metropolitan Museum of Art

File:Brooklyn Museum - Still Life with Peaches - Raphaelle Peale - overall.jpg|Still Life with Peaches, 1821

Image:Raphaelle Peale – Venus Rising From the Sea – A Deception – Google Art Project.jpg|Venus Rising from the Sea – A Deception, 1822

Image:Raphaelle Peale - Strawberries, Nuts, and Citrus.jpeg|Still Life: Strawberries, Nuts &c., 1822

</gallery>

  • Blackberries, c. 1813
  • Melons and Morning Glories, 1813
  • A Dessert (Still Life with Lemons and Oranges), 1814
  • Still Life with Orange and Book, 1815
  • Fruit, Pitcher, and Pretzel, unknown
  • Bowl of Peaches, 1816
  • Still Life with Fruit, Cakes and Wine, 1821
  • Still Life with Peaches, 1822
  • Lemons and Sugar, unknown

Notes

References

  • Evans, Dorinda. "Raphaelle Peale's Venus Rising from the Sea: Further Support for a Change in Interpretation." American Art Journal, vol. 14, no. 3, Kennedy Galleries, Inc., 1982, pp.&nbsp;63–72, <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.2307/1594328</nowiki>.
  • Frankenstein, Alfred, The Reality of Appearance, Greenwich: New York Graphic Society, 1970.
  • Lauren Lessing and Mary Schafer, "Unveiling Raphaelle Peale's Venus Rising from the Sea – A Deception," Winterthur Portfolio 43 (July/August 2009), 229–59. <nowiki>http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/600814</nowiki> 32 pages
  • Phoebe Lloyd, "Philadelphia Story", Art in America, (November 1988), 154&ndash;171, 195&ndash;200.
  • Margaret C. Conrads, ed., The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: American Paintings to 1945, vol. 1: https://archive.org/details/americanpainting01conr
  • Margaret C. Conrads, ed., The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: American Paintings to 1945, vol. 2: https://archive.org/details/americanpainting02conr_1
  • Ward, David C., and Sidney Hart. "Subversion and Illusion in the Life and Art of Raphaelle Peale." American Art, vol. 8, no. 3/4, [University of Chicago Press, Smithsonian American Art Museum], 1994, pp.&nbsp;97–121,
  • Raphaelle Peale at Artcyclopedia.com
  • "Raphaelle Peale (1774–1825) Artwork Images, Exhibitions, Reviews" (list of works), World Wide Arts Resources, 2007, webpage: WWAR-RPeale.
  • "The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Works of Art: American Paintings" (history), Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007, webpage: MMA-RPeale.
  • Birmingham Museum of Art, A Portrait of Margaret George McGlathery, 1817
  • Raphaelle Peale from the Smithsonian American Art Museum.