Sarah M. Peale America's First Woman Artist

Joan Ph.D. King

Description

Practically every member of the Peale family contributed to America's early art and culture and Sarah Peale was the first woman artist to have made a living from her work. Having learned to paint from her renowned father, she painted several famous people, including Lafayette, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Hart Benson, and Daniel Webster.
Sarah was a passionate woman bent on being successful as an artist. She was also a woman of strong passion with a will to love and to be in love. Though unmarried, she nevertheless loved her men—fiercely!
As a respected artist in Baltimore and in Washington, Sarah can truly be considered America's first woman professional artist, her art work continuously being in demand during her days and now hanging on the walls of prominent American museums.

Sujets

• Vie de famille
• Relations familiales
• Art
• American

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 21 février 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780828323048
• Langue: English

Extrait

SARAH M. PEALE
America’s First
Woman Artist
By
Joan King
 
Branden Books, Boston
www.brandenbooks.com
 


© Copyright 1987, 2011
By Joan King
All rights reserved.
 
edited by
Adolph Caso
 
 
Published in eBook format by Branden Books
Converted by http://www.eBookIt.com
 
 
Branden Books
PO Box 812094 Wellesley MA 02482
 
 
ISBN-13: 978-0-8283-2304-8
 
 
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
 


 
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Self Portrait by James Peale
2. The Artist In His Museum by Charles Willson Peale
3. Apples And Fox Grapes by Raphaelle Peale
4. Anna And Margaretta Peale by James Peale
5. After The Bath by Raphaelle Peale by Raphaelle Peale
6. Still Life by Sarah Miriam Peale
7. Edward Johnson Coale by Sarah Miriam Peale
8. Sarah Jane Armstrong by Sarah Miriam Peale
9. Mrs. George Henry Keerl by Sarah Miriam Peale
10. Self Portrait by Sarah Miriam Peale
11. General Andrew Jackson by Rembrandt Peale
 

 
INTRODUCTION
CHARLES WILLSON PEALE (1741-1827), Sarah's famous uncle, was a poor colonial saddle-maker with a widowed mother, wife and younger brother to provide for and a large business debt to pay. To augment his insufficient income, he constantly experimented with other trades. He taught himself sign-painting and watch repair. After seeing some crude paintings, he thought he could do as well. He read a book on the subject and traded a saddle to an artist for lessons and paints. He persisted in his efforts and impressed a group of wealthy Maryland leaders with his potential. The colony needed a good portrait artist and the men thought that Peale was a worthy candidate. They raised the money to send him abroad to study art under Benjamin West, a prominent American artist and president of the Royal Academy in London.
After two years, Peale returned to Maryland to become the best portrait artist in America. He shared his knowledge with his family, instructing his brothers in the art of painting. Finding his brother James a particularly apt pupil in need of an income-producing skill, Charles turned over to James his business of painting miniatures on ivory. Thereafter Charles devoted himself to painting full-sized portraits.
Peale's family was always first in his heart. As his many children were born, he selected their names from a dictionary of classic painters. The boys were named Raphaelle, Rembrandt, Rubens, Titian, and Vandyke, and for the girls, Angelica Kaufmann and Sophonisba Angusciola, female artists Charles admired even though they were not so well-known. When science and natural history claimed his attention, he named two sons Linnaeus and Franklin. However, the second of Charles's three wives insisted on naming her daughter, Elizabeth, after herself. As soon as the many children were old enough, he brought them into the studio and instructed them in art. His brother James also taught his children to paint.
Charles fought in the Revolutionary war. He made portraits of General Washington and nearly all of the famous soldiers and states men, intending these paintings as a record for posterity. But his energies and interests did not stop at art. He became one of the renaissance men of the 18th century. He was an inventor, mechanic, paleontologist, silversmith, watchmaker, millwright, naturalist, farmer and dentist. He even had a brief brush with politics, and dabbled in medical theory.
As his interest in natural history grew, he collected specimens of plants, animals, birds, minerals and curiosities. Eventually, these collections plus his many portraits of illustrious Americans formed the basis of a remarkable museum housed first in Philadelphia's American Philosophical Society's Building, and later in the second floor of the Philadelphia State House, which is now Independence Hall.
Charles Peale counted as friends such figures in American history as Benjamin Franklin, George Washington (Peale painted him seven times from life), Thomas Jefferson (who sent his favorite grandson to live with Peale for a year), Lafayette, Thomas Paine and countless patriots and leaders. He helped the young Robert Fulton with mechanical ideas. So boundless was his energy, enthusiasm and optimism, he believed the normal human life span was 200 years, and never considered himself as approaching old age, even at 86.
Charles and his brother James maintained close ties throughout their lives, sharing a studio for years, developing the distinctive realism that marks the Peale style. In the early years their work was so similar that many of James's finest early works were attributed to Charles. Although James painted miniatures and portraits in the manner he learned from Charles, he excelled in still life and landscapes, initiating another Peale tradition.
Sarah, James Peale's youngest daughter, grew up in this extraordinary family. She saw opportunity for herself as an artist and refused to be discouraged by public opinion that would force her into the minor role of "artist's assistant" because of her sex. Her achievements in an age of male domination can no longer be ignored. A woman of courage and independence, America's first professional woman artist has remained, except for her art, a mystery, overshadowed by the accomplishments of her uncle, father and cousins. This writing is an attempt to sweep away the dust of the last century and a half, and look not solely at her art but at the artist herself in her unique world. This is a work of fiction and imagination drawn from a study of the amazing Peale family.
 
Chapter 1
PHILADELPHIA
THE SUMMER OF 1818
Sarah hurried into the dining room after the others were seated. She would have skipped breakfast altogether today, but her father would never permit it, and she didn't want to start this day with a lecture. To James Peale, breakfast was important. Aside from food, he wanted everyone around him listening as he outlined what each would do that day. This was one time Sarah didn't need any instructions. She had prepared for this day of reckoning so long—well, her whole eighteen years of life, if you wanted to look at it that way.
A strong ray of sunlight reached into the dining room from the east window and touched the bowl of golden biscuits on the table. Sitting at her father's left, next to her mother, Sarah looked across the table to see her older sisters Anna and Margaretta smiling in her direction. "You look as pretty as a picture," Anna teased. Margaretta laughed.
Margaretta, five years older than Sarah, was beautiful. Just for today she'd like to be as pretty as Margaretta, if not so timid, and have 27 year-old Anna's talent and skill.
Her father held the bowl of warm biscuits before Sarah. "No thank you, Papa. I'm not hungry today."
"Take one," James said. "You'll need stamina and a steady hand." Sarah obeyed. She broke the biscuit and spooned honey onto one half, but already her mind had wandered to the painting studio. This was the day she was to paint her self-portrait, a tradition in the Peale family that, if successfully done, announced the change in status from student to artist. After today, if her self-portrait proved her skills, she would be a full assistant in her father's studio. Her portrait would hang there to show the world that she was competent. Her father had coached her intensively and impatiently over the past year and she was as ready as could be.
Her father's large easel sat in the space where the light was best, Anna's work table next to it, the miniature ivory she had been working on covered by a shroud of gauze. Margaretta had been painting the drapery in her father's large commissioned portrait. Sarah's table was clear.
The studio was already too warm. The neck of Sarah's crisp white blouse chafed. She ran her finger under the lace edging and wished she hadn't been so anxious to show off her skills in painting lace.
She set her palette and arranged her canvas so she could see her image in the mirror. James checked her palette and warned her about making the flesh tones too rosy. Though she tried to concentrate on what her father was saying, she was impatient and only half listening. Her task couldn't have been clearer. She had simply to paint what she saw in the mirror. However, her father continued to coach her, calling her Sally again as though she were still a child. "Remember what I told you about the line of the mouth—don't let it turn down at the edges. Get the shadows of the mouth right and a likeness will jump out of the canvas at you." He smiled.
"Yes, Papa; I'll remember."
"Now then, Sally, we'll leave you alone with your work. Your mother and sisters and I will drive out to Belfield for the day. I'll bring your Uncle Charles back with me, and together we will judge your painting and decide if you are ready." He eyed her with misgiving.
"Yes, Papa; I'll do my best. And oh yes," she brightened. "I hope cousin Betsy will come back with you. Then she can go to the wed ding with us tomorrow. Tell her the party will be lovely."
"Another damnable party," he said. "You shouldn't be thinking of parties at a time like this; you should concentrate on nothing but the work." James turned his stern blue eyes toward her, the lines in his forehead deepening. He shook his gray head and waved his finger."You'd best pay attention. No thoughts of wedding parties, no sitting out in the shade, no distractions. You'd better work as hard as you can for as long as you can."
"Yes, Papa," Sarah nodded and picked up a piece of charcoal.
"Don't worry," Margaretta whispered. "You'll do fine."
"Keep the shadows from going muddy," Anna added.
Sarah drew the head and shoulders, and blocked in the hair, but was not satisfied. She rubbed the draw