# Abigail Inskeep Bradford

- By: Rembrandt Peale (American, 1778–1860)
- Date: 1803–8
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: 68.6 × 55.9 cm (27 × 22 in.)
- Culture: United States
- Credit line: Gift of Mrs. Herbert A. Vance
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/156072)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/f73f1bb1-a961-ca90-9984-f783b5a5a005/full/!1835,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

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