Abigail Inskeep Bradford
Rembrandt Peale (American, 1778–1860)
1803–8
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 68.6 × 55.9 cm (27 × 22 in.)
- Culture
- United States
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of the Americas
- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. Herbert A. Vance
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Painted sometime after Rembrandt Peale’s 1803 return from London and before his 1808 trip to Paris, this sensitively rendered portrait marks a concerted effort by Peale to expand his repertory to include female subjects. Abigail Inskeep Bradford belonged to a prestigious Philadelphia family; her father served as the city’s mayor (1800–01 and 1805–06) and her brother, John Inskeep, presided over a successful publishing business. Unlike Peale’s portrait of her husband, Samuel Fisher Bradford (1986.21), in this work Abigail looks away from the viewer, avoiding a direct gaze. This subtle positioning followed social convention of the time, which demanded women be discreet in public and maintain distance from mundane worldly concerns.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
