Susan Avery
Sarah Miriam Peale1821
National Museum of Women in the Arts
Washington, D.C., United States
This painting is part of a pair of pendant portraits—portraits painted as a set, typically of husband and wife—and illustrates Sarah Miriam Peale’s meticulous attention to detail. The result is a visually and emotionally satisfying image of a proud and prosperous Philadelphia couple.
In what is likely a wedding portrait, Susan Avery sits in a slightly stiff, formal posture with her body angled and her gaze directed toward the viewer. Her stylish chair and rich attire indicate her wealth and status.
Particularly noteworthy are Susan’s earrings and heart-shaped pendant, as well as the tortoise-shell hair combs just visible at the back of her head and amid the curls near her face. Her husband, Isaac, probably manufactured such combs, which were expensive items at the time. Cashmere shawls of the kind draped around Susan’s left arm were equally luxurious.
In both portraits, Peale balanced the specificity of such details with the plain background that focuses attention on the figures themselves.
- Title: Susan Avery
- Creator: Sarah Miriam Peale
- Creator Lifespan: 1800/1885
- Creator Gender: Female
- Creator Death Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Creator Birth Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Date: 1821
- selected exhibition history: “Miss Sarah Miriam Peale, 1800-1885: Portraits and Still Life,” Peale Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, 1967
- artist profile: The youngest daughter of the American painter James Peale, Sarah Miriam Peale was considered the leading portrait painter in Baltimore and St. Louis during the mid-19th century. As part of a large and artistically talented family, this Philadelphia native was initially trained by her father. In 1818, she spent three months studying with her cousin, the noted painter Rembrandt Peale; his influence and inspiration, plus that of her uncle, Charles Willson Peale, were important for her early work. After experimenting with still lifes and miniatures, Peale exhibited her first full-size portrait at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1818. Six years later she and her sister Anna Claypoole Peale, a miniaturist, became the first two female members of the Academy, an enormously influential Philadelphia institution. Peale never married, preferring to devote her energies to her career. Her oil portraits quickly became sought after by diplomats, congressmen, and other eminent individuals who visited her studio—first in Baltimore and later in St. Louis. Records show that Peale received many more portrait commissions than celebrated male painters of the day such as Thomas Sully and John Vanderlyn. Beginning in 1859, Peale returned to painting still lifes, for which she won numerous awards. She spent the last seven years of her life in Philadelphia, where she lived with her sisters Anna Claypoole and Margaretta Angelica.
- Training: College of Physicians, Philadelphia, 1819; Private lessons, 1818
- Physical Dimensions: w27.5 x h35.25 in (Without frame)
- Type: Painting
- Rights: Museum Purchase: The Louis Pollard Price Acquisition Fund; Photography by Lee Stalsworth
- External Link: National Museum of Women in the Arts
- Medium: Oil on canvas
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