Sarah Miriam Peale (May 19, 1800 – February 4, 1885) was an American

portrait painter Portrait painting is a Hierarchy of genres, genre in painting, where the intent is to represent a specific human subject. The term 'portrait painting' can also describe the actual painted portrait. Portraitists may create their work by commissio ...

, considered the first American woman to succeed as a professional artist. One of a family of artists of whom her uncle

Charles Willson Peale Charles Willson Peale (April 15, 1741 – February 22, 1827) was an American painter, military officer, scientist, and naturalist. In 1775, inspired by the American Revolution, Peale moved from his native Maryland to Philadelphia, where he set ...

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 Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, the youngest daughter of the miniaturist and

still-life A still life (: 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 human-made (drinking glasses, books, ...

painter James Peale, younger brother of

. 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 Angelica, 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 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 wa ...

, her cousin, in

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

, and again in 1820 and 1822. He influenced her early painting style and subject matter, as did critic

John Neal John Neal (August 25, 1793 – June 20, 1876) was an American writer, critic, editor, lecturer, and activist. Considered both eccentric and influential, he delivered speeches and published essays, novels, poems, and short stories between the 1 ...

. 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, 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 St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

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 1878) and Margaretta Angelica (died 1882). Like her sister Margaretta, she never married. She died in 1885, aged 85. She is buried at the

Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church Gloria Dei Church, known locally as Old Swedes, is a historic church located in the Southwark, Philadelphia, Southwark neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at 929 South Water Street, bounded by Christian Street on the north, South Chris ...

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 *''

'', 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 The Peale is a community museum in Baltimore, Maryland, which opened in 2022 after a 5-year renovation. It occupies the first building in the Americas, Western Hemisphere to be designed and built specifically as a museum. Rembrandt Peale's ori ...

, Baltimore * ''Elijah Bosley ''(1740–1841) , oil on canvas 73.66 cm x 62.23 cm, private collection, Virginia *''José Silvestre Rebello'', 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 The San Diego Museum of Art is a fine art museum in Balboa Park in San Diego, California, that houses a broad collection with particular strength in Spanish art. It opened as the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego on February 28, 1926, and changed ...

, California *''Charlotte Ramsay Bobinson'', 1840, oil on canvas, oval, 96.5 x 66 cm, The Peale Museum, Baltimore City Life Museums *'' Henry Alexander Wise'', 1842, oil on canvas, 74.9 x 62.2 cm,

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) is an art museum in Richmond, Virginia, United States, which opened in 1936. The museum is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Private donations, endowments, and funds are used for the supp ...

, Richmond *'' Senator Thomas Hart Benton'', 1842, oil on canvas, 76.2 x 63.5 cm,

Missouri Historical Society The Missouri Historical Society was founded in St. Louis on August 11, 1866. Founding members created the historical society "for the purpose of saving from oblivion the early history of the city and state". Organization The Missouri Historica ...

, 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, Pennsylvania, 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 Painters from Philadelphia

Sarah Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch, prophet, and 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 pious woma ...

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