Charles Willson Peale, (born April 15, 1741, Queen Anne’s county, Md.—died Feb. 22, 1827, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.), U.S. painter, inventor, and naturalist. He began his career by exchanging a saddle for painting lessons. He later went to London to study with Benjamin West. On his return he became the preeminent portrait painter of the middle colonies. He damaged his professional career by entering enthusiastically into the revolutionary movement. In 1786 he founded an institution in Philadelphia for the study of natural law and display of natural history and technological objects; the Peale Museum, the first major U.S. museum, was widely imitated by other museums of the period and later by P.T. Barnum. Peale is best remembered for his portraits of the leading figures of the American Revolution.
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