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Portrait of Rosalba Peale
Rembrandt Peale (born PA 1778-died Philadelphia, PA 1860)
ca. 1820
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Classification
- Paintings
- Dimensions
- 20 x 14 5/8 in. (50.8 x 37.0 cm.)
- Museum
- Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase
- Rights
- CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access), 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 Smithsonian Institution
About this work
Rembrandt Peale tutored his daughter Rosalba (1799-1874) in art and raised her as an independent and strong-minded woman. Author and critic John Neal wrote that "Her mind is excellent. Her father has always taught her to think for herself, to reason, and to be firm, without wrangling or argument, in the expression of her opinions." (Miller, Rembrandt Peale, 1778-1860, A Life in the Arts, 1985) Although "Rosa" had many suitors, she refused to wed "the everyday man" and did not marry until she was sixty-two years old. In this portrait, made when she was in her early twenties, Rosalba's pensive expression conveys the alert mind and thoughtful conversation that won the admiration of others.
