Rembrandt Peale was the son of artist Charles Willson Peale and his first wife Rachel Brewer; he and his siblings (Rubens, Raphaelle, Titian Ramsay, Sofonisba Anguissola, and Angelica Kauffman), were named after European artists. Rembrandt painted his first work, a self-portrait, at thirteen. Charles Willson Peale arranged for George Washington to sit for Rembrandt in 1795. Rembrandt Peale managed the first Peale family museum outside of Philadelphia, in Baltimore, from 1813 to 1822. He studied and painted old masters in Europe, at the Royal Academy in London in 1802-1803; in France in 1808, and 1809-1810; in Italy, from 1828-1830; and London, 1832-1833. His work was influenced by French neoclassicism and particularly the work of Jacques-Louis David. In 1823 he resolved to create a heroic portrait of Washington: the painting now known from its inscription as the "Patriae Pater" portrait. The work was purchased by the United States Senate in 1832. He created at least 79 versions of this portrait of Washington, as well as a lithograph. Peale published brochures, articles and books, including drawing and painting manuals, reminiscences of his life, family, and travels. He also delivered numerous lectures regarding his Washington portraits in the 1850s, capitalizing on the fact that he was the only living artist who had had life sittings with the first President. From 1855 to 1857 he published various "Reminiscences" and "Notes and Queries" in The Crayon. By the time of his death in Philadelphia in 1860, he had worked as a portrait and history painter for almost seventy years, and produced more than a thousand works.