Women in the 19C United States of America: 19C American Women - Rembrandt Peale (American painter, 1778-1860)

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

19C American Women - Rembrandt Peale (American painter, 1778-1860)

Rembrandt Peale (American painter, 1778-1860) Portrait of Harriet Cany Peale 1840
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Rembrandt Peale (1778–1860) was an artist & museum keeper. Rembrandt Peale was born the 3rd of 6 surviving children (11 had died) to his mother, Rachel Brewer, & artist father, Charles Willson Peale in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The father taught all of his children the general arts & science & to paint scenery & portraits.

Rembrandt Peale (American painter, 1778-1860) The Sisters (Eleanor and Rosalba Peale)

Rembrandt began drawing at the age of 8 but left his father‘s instruction at 13, a year after his mother’s death & father’s remarriage. Peale visited Europe several times to study art especially Paris, where he studied the neoclassical style.

Rembrandt Peale (American painter, 1778-1860) Rosalba Peale at a Window

Motivated by his father’s 1786 American Museum of Philadelphia, Peale opened his own museum in Baltimore. Peale painted over 600 paintings, concentrating on popular depictions of George Washington & Thomas Jefferson. But he also painted many 19th-century American women as well.

Rembrandt Peale (American painter, 1778-1860) Rosalba Peale 1820

Rembrandt & his wife Eleanor May Short had 9 children: Rosalba, Eleanor, Sarah Miriam, Michael Angelo, & Emma Clara among them. He taught his children to paint, just as his father taught him. And he painted their portraits.

Rembrandt Peale (American painter, 1778-1860) Portrait of the Artist’s Wife Eleanor May Short Peale, ca. 1805.

Rembrandt Peale (American painter, 1778-1860) Olive Foote Lay

Rembrandt Peale (American painter, 1778-1860) Mary Denison, Later Mrs. Alexander C. Bullitt 1822

Rembrandt Peale (American painter, 1778-1860) Marie Wheelock Allen 1825

Rembrandt Peale (American painter, 1778-1860) Juliana Westray Wood

Rembrandt Peale (American painter, 1778-1860) Jane Griffith Koch 1817

Rembrandt Peale (American painter, 1778-1860) Helen Miller (Mrs. Charles G. McLean) 1806

Rembrandt Peale (American painter, 1778-1860) Dolley Madison

Rembrandt Peale (American painter, 1778-1860) Alida Livingston Armstrong and Daughter 1810.

Rembrandt Peale (American artist, 1778–1860) Caroline Louisa Pratt Bartlett

Rembrandt Peale (American artist, 1778–1860) Michael Angelo and Emma Clara Peale
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About this blog

In colonial America, men were considered superior to woman in all ways. In a strict patriarchal hierarchy, men controlled not only wealth & political power but also how their children were raised, religious questions, & all matters of right & wrong.

In the early part of the 19Cy, however, many Americans experienced a revolution in gender. The doctrine of “separate spheres” maintained that woman’s sphere was the world of privacy, family, & morality while man’s sphere was the public world -– economic striving, political maneuvering, & social competition. But women were interested in equality.

In 1848, New York passed the Married Woman’s Property Act. Now a woman wasn’t automatically liable for her husband’s debts; she could enter contracts on her own; she could collect rents or receive an inheritance in her own right; she could file a lawsuit on her own behalf. She became for economic purposes, an individual. By 1900, every state has passed legislation modeled after this, granting married women some control over their property and earnings.

In 1870 after the Civi War, the 15th Amendment was ratified, saying, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” African-Americans could vote, but women could not.

But it was not until 1920, that the 19th Amendment was ratified granting women the right to vote. “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”