Sarah Miriam Peale (1800 - 1885)

On May 19, 1800, Sarah Peale was born into one of Philadelphia's -- and America's -- most famous artist families. She painted still lifes and florals, as well as portraits. Over the course of her 60-year career, hers and her family's oil paintings are considered examples of the Realistic or Representational school.

In 1818, Sarah Peale exhibited her first full-size portrait at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and in 1824, she and her sister Anna Claypoole Peale, became the first two female members of Philadelphia's Academy. She had a studio in Baltimore and later one in St. Louis. She was actually more popular than several of her well-known male contemporaries and politicians were always commissioning her work.

She spent the last seven years of her life in Philadelphia, where she lived with her sisters Anna Claypoole and Margaretta Angelica. Sarah Peale was one of the first female artists in America to make her living as a painter. She never married and died February 4, 1885 in Philadelphia.