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Women’s History Month: Sarah Miriam Peale

Painting Self Portrait by Sarah Miriam Peale, 1818One of the painting Peales, Sarah Miriam Peale was also the last of the artistic dynasty, whose members included her uncle Charles Wilson Peale, and cousins Rembrandt, Raphaelle, and Rubens Peale. The family encouraged both boys and girls to pursue the arts.

Sarah was the most successful female painter in the family. For a time a local resident of both Baltimore and Washington, D.C., she mainly painted portraitsof such illustrious figures as the Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Hart Benton.

Her work is included in many museum and private collections. The Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery features her self -portrait in their online exhibition, American Women: A Selection from the National Portrait Gallery.

The Libraries also has some interesting items in its collections on the artist:

Sarah M. Peale: America's first woman artist, by Joan King

The Peale family: creation of a legacy, 1770-1870, Lillian B. Miller, editor.

Miss Sarah Miriam Peale, 1800-1885; portraits and still life, by Wilbur H. Hunter and John Mahey. Exhibition, February 5, 1967 through March 26, 1967, the Peale Museum, Baltimore, Maryland.

Image: Self Portrait by Sarah Miriam Peale, 1818.

—Elizabeth Periale

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