Rembrandt Peale - Portrait of Rosalba Peale - Google Art Project

Rosalba Carriera Peale (1799 – November 15, 1874) was an American portraitist, landscape painter, and lithographer. She was the eldest daughter of artist

Rembrandt Peale Rembrandt Peale (February 22, 1778 – October 3, 1860) was an American artist and museum keeper. A prolific portrait painter, he was especially acclaimed for his likenesses of presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Peale's style w ...

and granddaughter of

Charles Willson Peale Charles Willson Peale (April 15, 1741 – February 22, 1827) was an American Painting, painter, soldier, scientist, inventor, politician and naturalist. He is best remembered for his portrait paintings of leading figures of the American Revolu ...

Early life

Rosa was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, in 1799 and was named after

Rosalba Carriera Rosalba Carriera (12 January 1673 – 15 April 1757) was a Venetian Rococo painter. In her younger years, she specialized in portrait miniatures. Carriera would later become known for her pastel portraits, helping popularize the medium in eighte ...

, a Venetian

Rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

painter who specialized in

portrait miniature A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache, watercolor, or enamel. Portrait miniatures developed out of the techniques of the miniatures in illuminated manuscripts, and were popular among 16th-century eli ...

s. She was the eldest of nine children born to Eleanor May (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Short) Peale (1776–1836) and her husband,

(1778–1860), an artist and museum keeper who was a prolific portrait painter. After her mother's death in 1836, her father remarried to one of his art students, Harriet Cany, who continued to paint after their marriage in 1840. Her paternal grandparents were Rachel (née Brewer Peale and

, also a prominent painter. Among her large family were many prominent people, including

Raphaelle Peale Raphaelle Peale (sometimes spelled Raphael Peale) (February 17, 1774 – March 4, 1825) is considered the first professional American painter of still-life. Biography Peale was born in Annapolis, Maryland, the fifth child, though eldest survivin ...

(a painter),

Rubens Peale Rubens Peale (May 4, 1784 – July 17, 1865) was an American museum administrator and artist. Born in Philadelphia, he was the son of artist-naturalist Charles Willson Peale. Due to his weak eyesight, he did not practice painting seriously until ...

(a museum administrator and artist),

Franklin Peale Benjamin Franklin Peale (born Aldrovand Peale; October 15, 1795 – May 5, 1870) was an employee and officer of the Philadelphia Mint from 1833 to 1854. Although Peale introduced many innovations to the United States Mint, Mint of the United ...

(Chief Coiner at the

Philadelphia Mint The Philadelphia Mint in Philadelphia was created from the need to establish a national identity and the needs of commerce in the United States. This led the Founding Fathers of the United States to make an establishment of a continental national ...

), and Titian Ramsay Peale (who became a naturalist).

Career

Rosalba was tutored in art by her father and raised her as an independent and strong-minded woman. Her contemporary, John Neal, an author and critic, wrote that Rosa's "mind is excellent. Her father has always taught her to think for herself, to reason, and to be firm, without wrangling or argument, in the expression of her opinions." Following in her father's and grandfather's footsteps, Rosalba became an artist in her own right. She was known as an accomplished portraitist, landscape painter, and lithographer. She was also known for her abilities as a "copyist". In 1873, she presented her father's painting, '' Washington before Yorktown'', which was valued at $10,000 (equivalent to $ today), to the Mount Holly Association of New Jersey.

Personal life

Reportedly, she had many suitors, but refused to wed "the everyday man," instead choosing to wait until October 1860, when she was sixty-two years old, to marry widower John Allen Underwood (1798–1869). Underwood, who lived in England for a number of years, was an "eminent merchant of New York City" and traveled often. Her husband died on January 7, 1869, in

Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as enu ...

. Rosalba died at age 75 on November 15, 1874, in

Bustleton, Philadelphia The Bustleton section of Northeast Philadelphia is located in the Far Northeast, north of Rhawnhurst and Fox Chase and south of Somerton; sitting between Roosevelt Boulevard to the east, the city boundary to the west, Red Lion Road to the nor ...

, in Pennsylvania. She was buried at

Woodlands Cemetery The Woodlands is a National Historic Landmark District on the west bank of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. It includes a Federal-style mansion, a matching carriage house and stable, and a garden landscape that in 1840 was transformed into a ...

in Philadelphia.

References

External links

Peale-Sellers Family Collection, 1686-1963
at the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Peale, Rosalbe Carriera 1799 births 1874 deaths Rosalba Artists from Philadelphia Painters from Pennsylvania American women painters American portrait painters 19th-century American painters 19th-century American women artists Women lithographers