Sarah Miriam Peale
| Sarah Miriam Peale | |
|---|---|
Self Portrait by Sarah Miriam Peale, 1818
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| Born |
May 19, 1800 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Died | February 19, 1885 (aged 84) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | still life; portraiture |
Sarah Miriam Peale (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 19, 1800 – February 4, 1885, Philadelphia) 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.
Sarah was the youngest daughter of the miniaturist and still-life painter James Peale, 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.
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, and again in 1820 and 1822. He influenced her painting style and subject matter. For 25 years, she painted in Baltimore (1822–47) and, intermittently, in Washington, D.C. She attended sessions of Congress, and painted portraits of many public figures.
She was accepted to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1824 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 subjects were wealthy Baltimore residents and politicians from Washington DC.
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.
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