Sarah Miriam Peale

Sarah Miriam Peale was born into a painting dynasty on May 19, 1800. Her parents were the painter James Peale and Mary Chambers Claypoole Peale. She learned miniature painting from her father, but she also apprenticed and studied under her uncle, Charles Wilson Peale, and her cousin, Rembrandt Peale. James, Charles, and Rembrant were all renowned painters. 

Sarah and her older sister Anna Claypoole Peale are considered to be the earliest professional female artists in the United States. In 1824, Sarah and Anna were the first women elected academicians of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Sarah continued to exhibit her work at the Pennsylvania Academy until 1831. 

In 1825, Sarah and Anna moved to Baltimore. There, they established a studio in the Peale museum, which operated until 1829. During her time there, Peale made over 100 commissioned portraits of prominent politicians and public figures in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., such as Thomas Hart Benton and the Marquis de Lafayette. 

After an illness, Peale moved to St. Louis in the winter of 1847, where she lived for the next thirty years. During this period, she was the leading portraitist in St. Louis. As in Baltimore, her oil portraits for prominent families were highly sought after for their exquisite detail in light, texture, and color. She also made many elegant still life paintings, which she exhibited in St. Louis fairs.  

Peale returned to Philadelphia in 1878. Sarah and Anna’s work has an important legacy in American art, as irrefutable proof of what women could accomplish with equal education and training as men. Sarah Peale died on February 4, 1885.