Charles Peale Polk (1767–1822)

• Was an American portrait painter.
• Polk was born in Annapolis, Maryland.

• At age eight or ten, he was sent to Philadelphia to live with his uncle and study art.

• He was married by the time he was eighteen.

• By the time he was in his twenties, Polk was advertising himself as a portrait artist in Baltimore newspapers.

• By 1800 he had opened exhibitions in Baltimore.

• In 1800, he held government office in Washington, D.C. at the National Gallery of Art.

• He was the nephew of artist Charles Willson Peale.

• He made copies of many paintings including his own.

• It is said that he produced fifty-seven reproductions of his George Washington portrait.

• He opened a drawing school and a dry-goods business.

• Polk moved to Frederick County, Maryland.

• Ultimately, he took up life as a farmer in Virginia two years before his death.

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