Course Intro

The Artist in His Museum,

by Charles Willson Peale, 1822

I'd like to explain how this course came to be. It began with my curiosity about Peale's self portrait, which he painted to hand in the entrance to his Natural History Museum.

I studied and then taught at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Art , an atelier modeled on the PA Academy of the Fine Arts, founded by Peale and other artists and businessmen under the name Columbianum in 1805. My teacher and mentor in New Orleans (and founder of the Academy there) spoke fondly of his years as a student at PAFA. When I moved to Philadelphia, I enrolled in printmaking classes.

While a printmaking student, I began working on a book about birds. This led me to study natural history prints and aroused my curiosity about a painting hanging in the historic building of the PA Academy. I found the painting awkward, but was very intrigued. I found a biography of Charles Willson Peale in the school library, learned that he was concerned about deforestation and consumption of resources at the end of the 18th century, and was hooked.

Peale was born on Kent Island in Maryland, which is close to Anapolis. My family had an empty lot on Kent Island when I was in elementary school. We spent most weekends wading in the warm, shallow water while my parents dug for clams, sitting on the beach among the horseshoe crabs, swatting away horseflies and mosquitoes, or running through the tall, tick-laden grass, pretending to be on a savannah. I didn't love it. But I digress.

Peale's father went to prison for embezzlement when Charles was just 11 or so, and so he had to help support his mother and siblings right away. He had several apprenticeships and jobs, including work with a saddlemaker. The woodcarving and leather working skills he acquired on the job would be very useful later in life, when he became interested in taxidermy.

Peale was curious about everything and adventurous. He tried to make a living as a portrait painter, but found there weren't enough wealthy colonists to make a steady income from it. His skills were apparent, and several wealthy clients raised the funds to send him to London to study with American painter Benjamin West. Peale painted several presidential portraits, but turned his attention to the natural world.

He hoped that by collecting and displaying the marvels of nature, he could turn citizens into stewards. He dedicated decades of his life to collecting natural specimen and experimented with various forms of preserving and displaying them. His sons were hired as biologists on various expeditions in the territory beyond the Mississippi river, a region full of mystery to 18th century colonists. He received specimens from the Lewis and Clark expedition, exchanged letters and ideas on agriculture and farming with Thomas Jefferson, and was a member of the American Philosophical Society, founded by Benjamin Franklin.

I related to his desire to protect natural habitat and his optimistic approach to turn us all into stewards. I found the story behind his peculiar portrait exciting, especially because it led to so many other stories. Once I realized that (almost) every drawing of nature has a story to tell, I became absorbed in research. I had finished writing and illustrating my first illustrated book (Aviary Wonders Inc.) and was trying to write another, inspired by the life of CW Peale. I tried to write a fictional account about his quest to collect and catalog one of every living thing.

Frida Encounters Herself, graphite on paper, Kate Samworth, 2012

We're Only Paintings of Ourselves, Gouache on Paper,

Kate Samworth, 2012

I worked on writing the Peale inspired story on and off for many years, but could never make it work. However, I realized the joy of writing was in the research and in sharing my discoveries with people. At last, I realized the discoveries would never end and that the project needed to be a class, not a book with a beginning, middle, and end.

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