Sarah Miriam Peale (May 19, 1800 – February 4, 1885) was an American portrait painter, considered the first American woman to succeed as a professional artist. One of a family of artists of whom her uncle Charles Willson Peale was the most illustrious, Sarah Peale painted portraits mainly of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. notables, politicians, and military figures. Lafayette sat for her four times.

Life

Sarah was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the youngest daughter of the miniaturist and

still-life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or man-made (drinking glasses, boo ...

painter

James Peale James Peale (1749 – May 24, 1831) was an American Painting, painter, best known for his miniature and still life paintings, and a younger brother of noted painter Charles Willson Peale. Early life Peale was born in Chestertown, Maryland, ...

, younger brother of Charles Willson Peale. Her mother was Miriam Claypoole. Her father and her uncle trained her as an artist, and she served as her father's studio assistant. During her time as a studio assistant, she gained experience in mixing paints, preparing canvases, and delineating backgrounds. Sarah and her sisters, Anna Claypoole and Margaretta, were different from the middle-class women of the time, as they experienced schooling, how to be a wife and mother, as well as developed entrepreneurial skills from their family such as art. As a young girl, she gained experience doing the finishing touches on her father's paintings. Her first public works date from 1816 with subjects such as flowers and still-life, but soon turned to portraiture. In 1818, she spent three months with Rembrandt Peale, her cousin, in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...

, and again in 1820 and 1822. He influenced her early painting style and subject matter, as did critic John Neal. For 25 years, she painted in Baltimore (1822–1847) and, intermittently, in Washington, D.C. She attended sessions of Congress, and painted portraits of many public figures. Sarah first exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy with ''Portrait of a Lady'' (1818). She was accepted to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1824Dinner Party database of notable women at the Brooklyn Museum. along with her sister

Anna Claypoole Peale Anna Claypoole Peale (March 6, 1791 – December 25, 1878) was an American painter who specialized in portrait miniatures on ivory and still lifes. She and her sister, Sarah Miriam Peale, were the first women elected academicians of the Pennsylvan ...

, the first women to achieve this distinction. She opened a studio in Baltimore in 1831. Over 100 commissioned portrait paintings are known from her time in Baltimore. She was known the most prolific artist in the city during that era. Her oil portraits were quickly sought after by congressmen, diplomats, and other wealthy individuals in the Maryland area. Her portrait work is regarded as stylistically unique due to her usage of detailed furs, lace, and fabrics as well as realistic faces, skin, and hair. Basket of berries sarah miriam peale

In 1847, ill health caused her to relocate to St. Louis where she became independently successful, one of America's first professional female artists able to earn her living through her work. Most of her work from this era is in private hands. Around 1860, she shifted her subjects from portraits back to still-life, but with a natural arrangement rather that the formal ones of her earlier years. She returned to her hometown in 1878, living out her last years there with her sisters Anna Claypoole (died 1879) and Margaretta Angelica (died 1879). Like her sisters, she never married. She died in 1885, aged 85. She is buried at the Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia. Several paintings by Peale were included in the inaugural exhibition of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, ''American Women Artists 1830-1930'', in 1987.

Works

An incomplete list of exhibited works: *''Self-Portrait'', 1818, oil on canvas, 61.2 x 48.3 cm, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC *''Anna Marie Smyth'', 1821, oil on canvas, 91.4 x 71.1 cm, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia *''Susan Avery'', 1821, oil on canvas, 89.5 x 69.85 cm, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC *''Isaac Avery'', 1821, oil on canvas, 89.5 x 69.85 cm, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC *''Fruits and Wine'', 1822, oil on canvas, 29.8 x 40.6 cm *'' John Neal'', 1823, oil on canvas, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine *''Mrs. Rubens Peale and Son'', 1823, oil on canvas, 76.2 x 60.9 cm, The Peale Museum, Baltimore * ''Elijah Bosley ''(1740–1841) circa 1825, oil on canvas 73.66 cm x 62.23 cm, private collection, Virginia *''José Silvestre Rabello'', in 1826, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 89.2 cm, Brazilian Embassy Collection, Washington, DC *''Still Life: Grapes and Watermelon'', 1828, oil on canvas, 36.2 x 48.3 cm, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore *''Peaches and Grapes in a Porcelain Bowl'', 1829, oil on canvas, 29.8 x 38.1 cm, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey *''Self-Portrait'', 1830, oil on canvas, 68.6 x 50.8 cm, The Peale Museum, Baltimore City Life Museums *''Charles Lavalle Jessop (Boy on a Rocking Horse)'', 1840, oil on canvas, 90.1 x 106 cm *''Mrs. William Crane'', 1840, 75,6 x 62,9 cm, San Diego Museum of Art, California *''Charlotte Ramsay Bobinson'', 1840, oil on canvas, oval, 96.5 x 66 cm, The Peale Museum, Baltimore City Life Museums *''

Henry Alexander Wise Henry Alexander Wise (December 3, 1806 – September 12, 1876) was an American attorney, diplomat, politician and slave owner from Virginia. As the 33rd Governor of Virginia, Wise served as a significant figure on the path to the American Civil W ...

'', 1842, oil on canvas, 74.9 x 62.2 cm, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond *'' Senator Thomas Hart Benton'', 1842, oil on canvas, 76.2 x 63.5 cm, Missouri Historical Society, Saint Louis *''Basket of Berries'', 1860, oil on canvas, oval, 30.5 x 25.4 cm *'' Senator Lewis Fields Linn'', oil on canvas, Missouri Historical Society, Saint Louis

Awards

* Academician, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, USA (1824)

Notes

References

* *Miller, Lillian B. The Peale Family: Creation of a Legacy 1770–1870. (Washington, D.C.: Abbeville Press), 1996. * * Wilbur H. Hunter and John Mahey: Miss Sarah Miriam Peale: 1800–1885; portraits and still life; exhibition, February 5, 1967 through March 26, 1967, The Peale Museum, Baltimore, Maryland

External links

Gallery of works
at the Athenaeum website. Accessed January 2010 *
Missouri Remembers: Artists in Missouri through 1951
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peale, Sarah Miriam 1800 births 1885 deaths 19th-century American painters American portrait painters American still life painters American neoclassical painters Artists from Philadelphia

Sarah Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch and prophetess, a major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a piou ...

Sibling artists American women painters Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumni 19th-century American women artists Burials at Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church