PEALE, ANNA CLAYPOOLE; AND PEALE, SARAH MIRIAM

born March 6, 1791, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S. died Dec. 25, 1878, Philadelphia born May 19, 1800, Philadelphia died Feb. 4, 1885, Philadelphia American painters, known for their portraiture, who were among the first women to achieve professional recognition and success as artists in the United States. The Peale sisters were daughters of James Peale, a painter, and nieces of Charles Willson Peale, a well-known portraitist. As her father had entered his brother's studio and gradually taken over work on backgrounds and in miniatures, so Anna took over miniature work from her father. She exhibited a Fruit Piece at the first exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1811 and three years later showed a Frame Containing Three Miniatures. She traveled to Washington, D.C., to enter the studio of her Uncle Charles and won his highest praise for her miniature portraits on ivory. Her sympathetic portraits, heightened by contrasting backgrounds, brought her more commissions than she could comfortably handle. Among her subjects were James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and William Bainbridge. In 1824 she was elected to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where she exhibited regularly until 1842. Following her marriage (her second) to General William Duncan in 1841, she retired from painting. Sarah Peale, eight years younger than Anna, first exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1818 with Portrait of a Lady. The next year, she exhibited two portraits and four still lifes. Like her sister, she spent time in her Uncle Charles's studio in Washington, D.C., but she did not remain long. She launched an independent career as a portraitist, working in Philadelphia and Baltimore, Maryland. In 1824 she was elected to the Pennsylvania Academy along with her sister, and she exhibited there annually until 1831. She often shared studio and patronage with her sister. Her portraits were distinctive in their detailed furs, laces, and fabrics. Her subjects included Thomas Hart Benton, Caleb Cushing, William R.D. King, Daniel Webster, and the marquis de Lafayette. In 1846 she left Baltimore for St. Louis, Missouri, where she was the leading portraitist for 32 years. She later also painted still lifes. In 1878 she returned to Philadelphia to live with Anna, then a widow.