Noah and His Ark

The biblical story of Noah’s Ark allowed Peale to combine his artistic talent and love for natural history. This popular work was first exhibited in the Peale museum, located in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall. There, Peale exhibited portraits of notable Americans together with taxidermy animals, the bones of a mastodon, and other natural wonders. Peale’s painting is a copy of a lost work by an English artist. In a letter written in 1819 Peale described the original painting, noting that its variety of exotic species resembled a zoo more than the orderly pairing of animals described in Genesis. Peale also viewed Noah, who kneels in the foreground surrounded by family and creatures, as a symbol of parental love. The patriarch of a large family, Peale had retired to his country estate by the time of this painting. There, like Noah, he became a tiller of the soil, surrounded by his vineyards.