Titian and Rembrandt Peale

Though appearing to converse in this composition by Auguste Edouart, brothers Titian and Rembrandt Peale, both sons of Philadelphia artist Charles Willson Peale, had their silhouettes made three days apart. Titian is identified as the proprietor of the Philadelphia Museum, the institution that his father had founded in 1784. Titian’s contributions to the museum included ethnographic and natural history specimens, notably a butterfly collection from the American West and abroad. Following a period of financial decline, he was eventually forced to close the museum and subsequently went on to experiment with early photographic processes and techniques, and to work in the U.S. Patent Office. Rembrandt, shown at the right wearing glasses, operated a branch of the Peale Museum in Baltimore from 1814 until 1822, selling it to his brother Rubens. While he is best known for his “porthole” portraits of George Washington as pater patriae, Rembrandt also produced hundreds of other portraits and history paintings.