Painting (Portrait)

Description

​Harriet Cany Peale probably painted this work known as a “fancy picture” as an exercise to refine her artistic practice. Among the earliest known works by Cany Peale, the back is signed and dated six 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.​