His estate is now part of the campus of LaSalle University in Philadelphia. It can still be visited.
Peale also raised troops for the American Revolution and eventually became a captain in the Pennsylvania militia in 1776 and participated in several battles. While in the field, he continued to paint. doing miniatures of American officers. After the war, he made many into larger paintings.
From 1779 to 1780 he was in the Pennsylvania state assembly, after which he returned to painting full time.
Peale was quite prolific as an artist and did portraits of scores of historic figures such as Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton to name a few.
He is probably best known for his portraits of George Washington. The first time Washington sat for his portrait with Peale was 1772 and they had six other sittings. Using these seven as models, Peale produced altogether close to sixty portraits of Washington. In January 2005, a full-length portrait of Washington at Princeton from 1779 sold for $21.3 million, setting a record for the highest price ever paid for an American portrait.
--Cooter
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