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State of the Art

Pictured: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Art Museums & Galleries

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Philadelphia is a city of firsts, and it holds a first in the art category too: the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is the oldest art museum in the country, founded in 1805 by Charles Willson Peale, a painter himself who also fathered distinguished artists, Rembrandt and Raphaelle Peale — two of his seven sons.

Philadelphia was also home to Thomas Eakins, whose penetrating portraits of 19th-century Philadelphians make him arguably the greatest American painter. And this area has nurtured several “schools” of art, from the Pennsylvania Impressionists to the Ashcan school, led by Pennsylvania Academy teacher Robert Henri.

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