page_title: Anna Claypoole Peale
section_title: Late career
hierarchical_section_title: Anna Claypoole Peale / Career / Late career
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of a Woman, c. 1820, by Anna Claypoole Peale (American, 1791–1878), watercolor on ivory on a gilt metal locket with red leather case, Framed: 7.1 x 6 cm (2 3/4 x 2 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, #2008.229
context_page_description: Anna Claypoole Peale was an American painter who specialized in portrait miniatures on ivory and still lifes.
context_section_description: Between 1819 and 1829, Anna produced numerous miniatures. In a letter Anna wrote to Titian Ramsay Peale II in April 1819, she explained that she had been given tickets by Thomas Sully to attend 15 anatomical lectures by Mr. Calhoun with her sister Sarah Miriam. This series of anatomical studies assisted her already successful portrait work in the decade to follow.
  In 1820, Anna painted a portrait of her cousin Rembrandt Peale's daughter, Rosalba Peale. The miniature of Rosalba was an experiment to break away from oval miniatures and work with a three quarter, half-length pose with props of tables and drapery.  This increase in size makes the familial controversy that surrounded the creation of this work even more curious.
  Anna's portrait of Rosalba was intended to be a gift to a married couple, the Robinsons. However, after hearing this, Charles Willson Peale wrote to his family and questioned the motives of his granddaughter's portrait being given to a married man. Because this portrait does not have the same degree of delicate color work as others Anna was producing at the time, it is suspected that Charles’ letter caused her to leave the painting unfinished. The work was also never given to the Robinsons, but stayed in Anna's studio. Regardless of its possibly unfinished state, this miniature remained an example of the artist's superb handling of color.
  In 1822, Anna completed a portrait of Rubens Peale which is regarded as one of the high points of her oeuvre. She completed another portrait of an extended member of the Peale clan in 1824, Abraham Sellers (Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia). 
  Throughout her later career, Anna continued to exhibit artwork separate from her miniature portrait business. In 1824 Anna exhibited a copy of Jean-Baptiste Isabey's Miniature Portrait of Napoleon after Isabey.  In 1828 she exhibited some of her miniatures at the Boston Athenaeum.  A critic commented on her portrait of Mrs. Judson, wife of the Burmese Missionary: "dress extremely well finished...but the face appeared as if emerging from a murky atmosphere". Then in 1829, she exhibited Beatrice Cenci after Guido Reni  not only at PAFA, but also, in 1831, at the Boston Athenaeum.
  After a long career, Anna Claypoole Peale was the last miniature painter in an unbroken line of artists in the Peale family. Her career ended circa 1842, coinciding with the decline of the portrait miniature in the United States.
caption: Portrait of a Woman, 1820, watercolor on ivory on a gilt metal locket with red leather case, framed: 7.1 x 6 cm (2 3/4 x 2 5/16 in.)
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