Titian Ramsay Peale (1799-1885)
Bob White Quail
oil on canvas, 19 1/2 by 17 1/4 in.
Collection of John E. du Pont label on back

Titian Ramsey Peale was born in Philadelphia in 1779, the youngest son of Charles Willson Peale, a noted early American artist who opened the first museum in the United States. Titian, who studied anatomy, taxidermy, and drawing at the University of Pennsylvania, traveled west with the Long Expedition into the Rocky Mountains in 1819-1820. Peale sketched and collected specimens as an assistant naturalist.

He went on to work at the Philadelphia Museum and serve as artist/naturalist on several additional expeditions. Eleven of his drawings appear in Charles Lucien Bonaparte's 1825-1833 publication "American Ornithology," and Peale played an important role in determining that Audubon's Bird of Washington was, in fact, a bald eagle. He worked at the U.S. Patent Office for many years and was an innovative early photographer. Peale died in 1885 in Philadelphia.

A closely related work also depicting a covey of quail titled "Five Bobwhites at the Delaware Water Gap" set the world record for any Peale work, selling for just over $100,000 in 2002.

Provenance: John E. du Pont Collection
Private Collection, Sun Valley, Idaho

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