Charles Waterton

Inscriptionback to top

Inscribed on the back of the original canvas (now covered by relining): Painted from the life,/in the year 1824 in/Philadelphia U.S. by/Charles Wilson Peale Esq^r/of/Philadelphia

This portraitback to top

Waterton visited Philadelphia on his return journey from South America, attracted by the growing fame of Peale's Museum, founded by C. W. Peale, who was a naturalist as well as an artist. He was discovered in the museum by Titian Peale, the artist's son, complaining about his inability to get a good cup of tea anywhere in America. Titian Peale took him home, to the best tea he had yet tasted abroad, and he at once became a friend of the elder Peale and his whole family. At this first meeting, which must have occurred early in June 1824, Waterton launched into a description of his own method of preserving specimens, exhibiting a cat and a South American bird (presumably those depicted in the portrait) as examples of his work. He offered to instruct Titian Peale in his method, an offer which was gratefully accepted. The two men travelled in New Jersey collecting birds and animals, while the elder Peale went south to Maryland. Sellers suggests that the portrait was painted on the latter's return to Philadelphia later in the summer, as a thank-you present to Waterton, who refused any recompense for instructing Titian. In his MS autobiography (quoted by Sellers, 1952, 244), Peale wrote that the portrait, 'although done in a short time is an acknowledged likeness', It was apparently exhibited at the Museum soon after it was painted. The bird, a Guiana Red Cotinga of the Amazon-Guiana region [1], and the cat, were portrayed as examples of Waterton's method, which enabled him to preserve animals without using conventional methods of stuffing. Peale had developed his own method along the same lines. The book shown in the portrait is inscribed 'WATERTON'S/METHOD/P[eale]Museum'; no work of this title was ever published by Waterton, but he appended a section to his Wanderings in South America &c (1825), entitled 'original instructions for the perfect preservation of birds, etc, for cabinets of natural history'; these instructions were also quoted in Titian Peale's Circular of the Philosophical Museum &c (Philadelphia, 1831). The subsequent history of the portrait is not clear. Sellers identifies it with the portrait of Waterton included in the sale of items from Peale's Museum, Thomas & Sons, Philadelphia, 1854, which was bought by George Ord for $12. He does not explain how it then entered Waterton's collection, or the collection of his descendants. It seems more probable that the NPG portrait was given by Peale to Waterton at the time, and brought home by him. If this is so, the portrait sold in 1854 would be another version, painted by Peale for himself. The NPG portrait was engraved by H. Adlard as the frontispiece to Waterton's Essays on Natural History (3rd series, 1857). A brief description of Peale and the Peale Museum is included in Waterton's Wanderings, p 301.

Footnotesback to top

1) Kindly identified by the staff of the British Museum of Natural History. Sellers erroneously describes the bird as a Virginia Cardinal.

Referenceback to top

Sellers 1947
C. C. Sellers, Charles Wilson Peale (Philadelphia, 1947), II, 369-71.

Sellers 1952
C. C. Sellers, 'Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Wilson Peale', Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, n. s. XLVIII, part I (Philadelphia, 1952), 244 (no.960).

Physical descriptionback to top

Healthy complexion, greyish eyes, brown hair. Dressed in a black stock, white shirt, yellow waistcoat, and black coat with gilt buttons. Holding a red and black bird. Tabby-coloured cat's head and brown leather-bound volume on table. Background colour, various tones of brown and green.

Provenanceback to top

Purchased from the Waterton estate by Bromhead Cutts & Co, through the Public Trustee, and purchased from them, 1924.

Exhibitionsback to top

Charles Waterton, Wakefield City Museum, 1951 (46).

Reproductionsback to top

C. C. Sellers, Charles Wilson Peale (Philadelphia, 1947), II, facing 370; C. C. Sellers, 'Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Wilson Peale', Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, n. s. XLVIII, part I (Philadelphia, 1952), plate 350.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Ormond, Early Victorian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1973, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

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