Painting (Portrait)

Description

Sarah Miriam Peale studied painting with her father, James, her uncle Charles Willson, and her cousin Rembrandt, from whom she gained an interest in color. As an accomplished portraitist, she participated in the annual exhibitions at the Peale Museum and was nominated to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1824. Between 1831 and 1846, she maintained her studio in Baltimore, where she successfully competed for commissions with male contemporaries. This portrait of Mary Ann Jenkins Kennedy, likely painted for her wedding in 1831, represents her decorative, patterned use of color. In 1847, Sarah moved to St. Louis, then considered the western frontier of the United States, where she painted portraits of illustrious clientele for more than thirty years, including the Marquis de Lafayette in 1824.