On July 4 the Park Service opened the Second Bank building on Chestnut Street. It contains Charles Willson Peale’s original 18th century museum. I was very impressed. Have you seen it? Most of Peale’s paintings are there, I believe. There’s a scattering in the big national museums but this is like the Rodin museum: It’s definitive and effing amazing.
The Peale museum is just one of the locked-away treasures in Philadelphia. Jefferson’s house, formerly open three hours a week, has closed permanently because of the sequestration. Most Americans find the Civil War more interesting that the Revolution. No one demands to see these places.
The Portrait Gallery at the Second Bank, which is part of the National Park Service, is between 4th and 5th on Chestnut St.
–Artblog contributor Michael Andre is moving from Philadelphia to Princeton at the end of August, 2013.
