John Neagle

John Neagle (1796 – 1865) was a fashionable American painter, primarily of portraits, during the first half of the 19th century in Philadelphia.

Neagle was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His training in art began with instruction from the drawing-master Pietro Ancora and an apprenticeship to Thomas Wilson, a well-connected painter of signs and coaches in Philadelphia. Wilson introduced him to the painters Bass Otis and Thomas Sully, and Neagle became a protégé of the latter. In 1818 Neagle decided to concentrate exclusively on portraits, setting up shop as an independent master.

Aside from brief sojourns in Lexington, Kentucky, and New Orleans, Louisiana, he spent his career in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he died. Neagle served as Director of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and was also a founder and president (1835–43) of the Artist's Fund Society of Philadelphia.