Charles Wison Peale (1741-1827) was many things in his life, and like many of us, it took him a while to find his game, but once he did, there was no turning back. He started out as a failed saddle maker, clock fixer, and metal worker, but he soon discovered that whatever talent he lacked in his myriad of endeavors, he excelled as a painter.
Charlie was an early enthusiast for American independence and ended up in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776. Low and behold, there were more than a few great revolutionary figures who also happened to be there during that fateful summer. Washington, Jefferson, and the other founding fathers had better things to do than pose for their portraits so Peale was unable to paint them that summer. Fortunately, they had more time after the revolution and Charlie was eventually able to capture each of them on canvas for posterity.
During the Revolutionary War, Peale had fought in many battles and kept up with his artistic skills by painting miniatures of Continental Army officers in the field. After the war, his prodigious talents were recognized, and he came to be known as the finest portrait painter in America. In that role, Peale painted countless giants of the day, including Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington. Of his 60 or so portraits of our first president, Washington at Princeton, was his best-known work. In 2005, that painting sold for $21.3 million and was, at that time, the highest price paid for an American portrait.
However, his talents and prodigious contributions as a great artist, pale by comparison to his greatest contribution to America. In addition to Peale’s passion for portrait painting and American Independence, he had a strong interest in natural history and organized the first American scientific expedition in 1801.
At that point, Peale had not abandoned his passion for art, but he augmented it with his long-standing interest in the natural world. With his findings and discoveries from this nascent scientific expedition, Peale founded the Peale Museum. The Peale Museum failed due to a lack of funding, however, Peale’s idea of a public museum for the purpose of putting important things on pubic display to enlighten and advance the newly created American nation and its citizenry. This idea took root and has been an enduring part of American culture for over two centuries.
The postscript to the financially failed Peale Museum, however, was a great success. The collections from the Peale Museum formed the foundation of the Philadelphia Museum, which remains one of America’s great Public Museums.
Peale’s idea of Public Museums for Americans from all walks of life and economic strata, to be able to view, absorb and enjoy the world’s greatest art, science, and culture are now under attack. There is an ugly new piece of jargon that has become ubiquitous in the world of museum management.
It is called "deaccessioning". Essentially this means the sale of museum masterpieces to diminish and destroy their collections. This insanity has become the instrument of "woke culture” to reorder the collection properties of these museums. In other words, why buy and display a single Rembrandt, when you can acquire a thousand pieces of "street art”, patronize the work of groups or individuals who have been outcast, overlooked, or historically neglected?
Who is to say that a street artist has less to say than a so-called Dutch Master, etc?
The sickness of deaccessioning is happening across the entire spectrum of our great museums and other cultural institutions, many of which have taken decades or centuries to build. There is no cultural institution that has immunity for this pernicious trend.
Peale’s idea of a Public Museum in order to expand the aesthetic, and intellectual grasp of Art and Science for every American was his true masterpiece.
The current movement of Museum "deaccessioning" is taking the great works of art, as well as other displays of knowledge and accomplishment, and placing them in the hands of the highest private bidders for their collections. Should this trend continue, your children and grandchildren will get to see lots of "street art”, in the Public Museum, but will have limited access to view the accumilated masterpieces that are no longer in vogue and being disposed of by “woke” museum curators. If you are a billionaire, you will still be able to buy them at auction to decorate your bathroom.
Museum Curator to Charles Peale: “Sorry, Charlie… We only sell our greatest masterpieces.”
-Emes