Art Institute of Chicago

Abigail Inskeep Bradford

Rembrandt Peale (American, 1778–1860)

Date

1803–8

Medium

Oil on canvas

Culture

United States

Department

Arts of the Americas

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Painted sometime after Rembrandt Peale’s 1803 return from London and before his 1808 trip to Paris, this sensitively rendered portrait marks a concerted effort by Peale to expand his repertory to include female subjects. Abigail Inskeep Bradford belonged to a prestigious Philadelphia family; her father served as the city’s mayor (1800–01 and 1805–06) and her brother, John Inskeep, presided over a successful publishing business. Unlike Peale’s portrait of her husband, Samuel Fisher Bradford (1986.21), in this work Abigail looks away from the viewer, avoiding a direct gaze. This subtle positioning followed social convention of the time, which demanded women be discreet in public and maintain distance from mundane worldly concerns.

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