James Sharples

Born in Bath, England, in 1751, died in New York City, February 26, 1811. He came to this country first in 1794 but after a few years went back to England, finally returning to America in 1809. Sharples is famous for the miniature portrait pastels he made of most prominent men of his day. The majority of them are in profile but many are full face. He drew a portrait of Washington in profile in 1796, when Washington was in Philadelphia, and of this his wife later made a copy on ivory. Sharples made a replica of nearly all the portraits which he executed and on each was the name of the sitter. These are of inestimable value in identifying portraits of that period.

( A portrait of Carlos Martinez de Irujo y Tacon by James Sharples)

Peter Frederick Rothermel.

(Peter F. Rothermel's Patrick Henry before the Virginia)

Born in Wescopack, Pa., July 18, 1817, died in Grassmere, Pa., August 15, 1895. First studied land-surveying and only took up the study of art at the age of twenty-two. He was a pupil of J. R. Smith and afterwards of Bass Otis. Fro 1847 to 1855 he was director of the Pennsylvania Academy. The next year Rothermel went to Europe, visiting the principal cities of Italy, England, France, Germany and Belgium, returning to America in 1859. On his return he settled in Philadelphia, where he painted some portraits, but principally historical subjects and paintings as illustrations for books.

Charles Peale Polk.

(Mrs. Diana James Lawson by Charles Peale Polk)

Born in 1767 and died in 1822. His mother was Elizabeth Digby Peale, sister of Charles Willson Peale, who married Captain Robert Polk of Virginia. Polk came to Philadelphia to live with his uncle in 1775 and remained in his household until his early manhood. He was a student of painting in his uncle's studio and practiced the art of portrait painting for a number of years. Later he held a position under the Government at Washington.

American Illustrators of Post World War II Period.

Disregarded in their own day, the styles of illustration which have since come to characterize the 1950s and 1960s are magazine advertising and comic art. These styles even began to flow back into the mainstream of fine art in the work of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein (both of whom had worked as commercial illustrators). Not so admired have been the various styles of illustration associated with pop album cover in the 1970s, often based on airbrush techniques.

The 1950s and 1960s were another Golden Age of Illustration, with hundreds of Illustrators working. Illustrations appeared in magazines, on billboards, on magazine covers and on television. The use of Illustrators began to wane in the mid 1950s, but the genre continued to be seen regularly through the early 1960s. The artwork of Norman Rockwell, Harry Anderson, Boris Artzybasheff, and Charles Kerins, epitomize the era.

• Harry Anderson
• Boris Artzybasheff
• Charles Kerins
• Roy Lichtenstein
• Norman Rockwell
• Andy Warhol

Rembrandt Peale.

(self-portrait of Rembrandt Peale, son of Charles Willson Peale)

Born in Bucks County, Pa., February 22, 1778, died in Philadelphia, October 3, 1860. He was the son of Charles Willson Peale, and at an early age gave evidence of a talent for art. In 1795 he was given three sittings by Washington and painted what he called his original portrait of Washington. In 1801 he went to England and studied under Benjamin West. After his return to America in 1803, he painted portraits in Savannah, Charleston, New York and Philadelphia. He made trips to Paris in 1807 and again in 1809 to paint portraits of distinguished Frenchmen for his father's museum and to study in the art galleries there. In 1829 he again went to France and Italy, spending sixteen months on the continent, then to England, remaining there until 1833, when he returned to America. While in England Peale exhibited at the Royal Academy. He was President of the American Academy after Trumbull, and was one of the original members of the Academy of Design. A good portrait painter, he is especially known for his "composite portrait" of Washington. In painting this picture he used not only his own portrait made from life but those of his father, the Gilbert Stuart portraits and the Houdon bust. According to his own records, he painted thirty-nine copies of his father's Washington, and seventy-nine of his own.

Charles Willson Peale.

(Joseph Brant by artist Charles Willson Peale.)

Born in Chestertown, Md., April 13, 1741, died in Philadelphia, February 22, 1827. He was probably the most versatile of all American artists, as he at various times practiced coach-building, harness-making, clock and watch manufacturing, silversmithing, dentistry and taxidermy; he was also a naturalist and interested in politics, besides being a miniature painter and a portrait painter in oils of marked ability. In his twenty-fifth year he gave up his various trades and devoted himself to portrait painting. His first lessons were received from John Hesselius, the son of Gustave Hesselius. After a year in Boston, studying with John Singleton Copley, in 1767 he went to London, where he became the pupil of Benjamin West. While in London, Peale studied modeling in wax, casting and molding in plaster, and mezzotint engraving. Returning to Annapolis in 1769, he commenced painting portraits. In 1772 he went to Mt. Vernon and painted the earliest known portrait of George Washington. Three years later he established himself in Philadelphia. In 1802 he opened Peal's Museum in that city, which was one of the first museums in the country. He made several attempts to form an art academy in Philadelphia before he was finally successful in assisting in establishing the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1805. Peale was a virile and convincing portrait painter but his reputation has suffered somewhat, due to a number of mediocre portraits that he painted for his museum, and also to the fact that portraits painted by his relatives have passed for his work. He is supposed to have made it a point of refusing commissions in the interest of his sons, among them, Rembrandt, Raphael and Titian Peale. He had a brother, James and two nieces, Anne Claypoole, and Sarah Ann Peale, all of whom were artists.