Painting (Portrait)

Description

Harriet Cany Peale, often described as a copyist, painted this portrait of her younger brother Henry, an original composition by the artist herself. Among the earliest known works by Cany Peale, the back is signed and dated twelve years before the artist’s marriage to Rembrandt Peale. Rembrandt Peale was the son of Charles Willson Peale, colonial painter and proprietor of the Peale’s Museum in Philadelphia, the lively artistic city where Harriet and Rembrandt met, and she became Peale’s student. The couple married in 1840, shared a studio, and collaborated on many paintings, including producing copies of Rembrandt Peale’s famous porthole portraits of George Washington.