Rembrandt Peale developed a portrait practice after training with his father, Charles Willson Peale. In 1795 he painted George Washington from life, an opportunity that later underpinned a sustained effort to create a definitive public image of the first president. His Patriae Pater of 1824 combined remembered features with earlier portraits and sculpture, framing Washington within a painted stone oval. Congress purchased the original in 1832, and Peale produced numerous versions of the design.

Travel in Europe broadened his work beyond portrait commissions. He studied old masters and explored encaustic painting, which used wax as a medium. In Paris he met Alexander von Humboldt and painted the naturalist's portrait. He also attempted ambitious history and allegorical pictures, seeking audiences for works that required larger spaces and greater financial investment than ordinary portraits.

Peale established a museum in Baltimore that brought natural history specimens together with art for public instruction. Financial difficulties led him to transfer management to his brother Rubens in 1822 and seek work in other cities. He eventually settled in Philadelphia in 1831, continuing portraiture while promoting drawing as a useful skill. He published a drawing manual for students in 1835 and later contributed recollections to The Crayon. He died in 1860. His working life encompassed painting, museum entrepreneurship, art education and the reproduction of national imagery.