Anna Maria Von Phul

Though originally from Pennsylvania and Kentucky, painter Anna Maria von Phul created some of the first-known works to depict contemporary life in Missouri. Her work -- which often focused on landscapes, the city’s Creole culture, and working-class life -- offer a valuable glimpse into the everyday life of St. Louis residents in the early 19th century, which eventually earned her the nickname “the Eyes of Missouri Territory.”

At a young age, von Phul lived with her widowed mother and siblings in Lexington, Kentucky, where she studied French, watercolor painting and drawing at a young ladies' academy operated by George and Mary Beck. After receiving praise from her instructors, she devoted her free time to pursuing her artistic talents, often producing works to give to friends and family as gifts. Unmarried, she eventually relocated to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1821 to live with her brother, Henry, who was a businessman in the city. While there, she filled her sketchbooks with watercolors and illustrations documenting daily life in the city, which included the transportation, architecture, fashion, and various cultures living in the bustling Missouri city. Though her renderings were often delicate and small in nature, they keenly captured the bold colors utilized in Creole culture and fashion.

Von Phul’s time in St. Louis was cut short, as was her life, when she contracted a fever and died suddenly at the home of her sister in Edwardsville, Illinois, in 1823. A portrait of the artist, painted by fellow artist and friend Matthew Harris Jouett, now resides in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Various sketchbooks, artworks and letters of the artist are housed with the Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, the Missouri State Historical Society, Columbia, and the Kentucky Historical Society, Frankfort.