Raphaelle Peale (1774–1825) was Charles Willson Peale’s eldest son. As in Charles’s famous double portrait Staircase Group (Portrait of Raphaelle Peale and Titian Ramsay Peale I"), painted almost twenty-five years earlier, he shows Raphaelle here with his palette in hand. Here, the small picture on the wall behind Raphaelle acknowledges his dedication to still-life painting. This was the art form in which Raphaelle excelled; he ultimately became known as the most gifted founding member of the tradition of American still-life painting.

Although Charles began this portrait in 1817, Raphaelle’s frequent travels to find work, his personal difficulties, and the ongoing tensions between father and son delayed its completion until 1819., Charles exhibited it that year at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with the title Portrait of an Artist.