c. 1830

Portrait of Cornelia Mandeville

American, 1800 - 1885

Sarah Miriam Peale was among the earliest successful professional female artists in the United States. Active in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, DC, and Saint Louis, she painted bold and engaging portraits of both famous and less well-known individuals. Sarah’s training and dedication to art were directly informed by instruction from her father, the portrait and still life painter James Peale, and her cousin the portraitist and history painter Rembrandt Peale. Cornelia Mandeville (1811–1841) was the daughter of Charlotte Schott and Henry D. Mandeville, a merchant engaged in Philadelphia's lucrative China trade. Sarah’s portrait of Cornelia displays the artist’s ability to capture an individual likeness while also adapting the forms of contemporary furniture and fashion to create a decorative composition. The use of highly saturated color and sinuous line and the sitter’s sharply defined features are all typical of Sarah's style.