Analysis Of Charles Wilson Peale's The Artist In His Museum

Everyone perceives the role of the artist, whether it is a teacher, historian, visualizer, or innovator, and their art as something entirely different from the next. Charles Wilson Peale and William Sydney Mount present the profession of an artist as one of a welcoming educator in The Artist in His Museum and The Painter’s Triumph. However, Peale’s depiction of the artist is that of a revealer of history to an upper class audience where as Mount showcases a showman displaying evolved, less traditional art to the common man.

In The Artist in His Museum, Peale portrays the artist as an exposer. The museum curator is pulling back a bright red curtain in an effort to reveal his museum to the audience. He has a welcoming hand gesture, inviting

the audience to come inside and learn about the country’s history. Also, Peale centers and clothes in simple attire the museum curator, making him an approachable host. The museum curator is the artist, so Peale is challenging the traditional sense of an artist. Artists are not only people who work with a palette, paintbrush, and canvas. Peale paints the museum containing historical evidence and a scientific exhibition of birds and a skeleton. This suggests that art is not simply for the pleasure of its viewer. Art serves an educational purpose for the American public; it can convey the teachings of science and history, an idea furthered by Peale’s choice to fuse two distinct spaces within one picture plane. People visiting his museum gain knowledge about the hierarchy of nature with man at the top, which Peale includes in his painting through the art displays on the left hand side. Peale renders the woman gasping at the skeleton, which says that Peale believed the notion that the public had little knowledge in regards to scientific discoveries, and it is his job to provide them with the opportunity to broaden their horizons.
Similar to Peale’s characterization, Mount’s The Painter’s Triumph communicates the artist as an entertainer. There is a theatrical sense to the painting because Mount paints less serious facial expressions on the artist and his audience member. The artist outstretches his arms, and one of his hands appears to be pointing to his canvas like he is saying ‘Ha, look at my art.’ The audience member bends down and into the canvas in an expression of interest by the canvas’ show. Mount’s use of outstretched arms also depicts a welcoming aura because it is like the artist is opening himself and his art up to the public’s view. However, the art behind the canvas Mount presents as something that has evolved from what it once was. Art is not a vehicle for learning, like Peale’s definition of art, but there is a less sophisticated quality to it because the artist is revealing it in a showy fashion. Even the classical image on the wall is turning away from the artist’s canvas, which advocates that it does not approve of this new style or role of art.
Moreover, Peale’s picture is an appeal to the public in order to justify his unconventional art museum.

He wanted his audience to fund his museum, so he had to display all the possibilities one attains from visiting his museum. Additionally, he wanted viewers to visualize art as not only a means of memorialization of a patron’s ideas. Peale includes high-class audience members in his painting to suggest that those of higher status are the recipients of art’s pleasure. Suits and dresses bathe over them as if looking at art is an important affair. However, since Peale is opening the curtain to his museum, he is allowing for the common public to gain a glimpse into the high class world of art viewing. Mount, on the other hand, is saying that the common individual is art’s main spectator. He paints a farmer as the one enjoying whatever exists behind the canvas. He is making art seem more accessible and able to provide delight to a wider audience. Furthermore, the artist and the farmer have similar facial features, placing them on an equal playing field. The farmer’s expression, however, is not too intelligent and is reminiscent of how a child looks at things. Through this, Mount is speaking to the idea that audience members do not need to be of high status or high class to look at art. Viewers can be simple people and still be an appreciator of

art.
Through The Artist in His Museum, Peale is displaying art as a vehicle to teach history and science to those of high class. Mount’s The Painter’s Triumph showcases a very different side to art with a farmer or common man as the viewer of a less respected art production. Although they disagree on who should view and judge art, Peale and Mount present the profession of artistic expression as one of an inviting educator to the public.