If one family could be said to have shaped the American arts scene, it would be the Peale family. Patriarch Charles Willson Peale was a self-taught painter who became one of the foremost portraitists around the Revolution. His family nurtured and perpetuated the American tradition of painting for generations.
Some members of this successful artistic family weren’t born into it; they married into it. Out of Peale’s 17 children, several became accomplished artists, including the third-born Rembrandt Peale (1778–1860). One artist in particular added to the luster of this painting dynasty with her own artistic talent when she married Rembrandt—Harriet Cany Peale (1799–1869).
