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(2) James Peale
(b Chestertown, MD, 1749; d Philadelphia, PA, 24 May 1831). Painter, brother of (1) Charles Willson Peale. Charles encouraged him to become a painter; James also worked as a frame-maker for his brother until the Revolution, in which he served as a lieutenant. From 1779 James shared Charles’s practice, specializing in miniatures. His early work, occasionally confused with Charles’s, shows his brother’s influence. After 1794, his style became clearly his own: more delicate with subtle colour harmonies, softened outlines and free handling; it may be distinguished by a faint violet tone in the shadows and the inconspicuous signature ‘IP’. His miniatures of male subjects are frequently superior to his portraits of women, for example Benjamin Harwood (1799; Baltimore, Mus. & Lib. MD Hist.), but his meticulous attention to costume and his success in imparting colour and sparkle to skin and eyes, as in the lovely portrait of Mrs John McCluney (1794; Washington, DC, N. Mus. Amer. A.), compensate for drawing deficiencies.
Part of the Peale family
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