Paintings of Early American Women by Joseph Blackburn

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Although it is not certain, artist Joseph Blackburn was probably born, schooled, and died in England. He clearly was taught painting in the English Rocco portrait style & his particular skill was in painting elegant fabrics & fashions on gracefully portrayed sitters. He sailed first to Bermuda, where he spent 2 years painting portraits.

1753 Joseph Blackburn (fl in the colonies 1754-1763). Mary Lea (Mrs. John Harvey).

He left the island for the potential of a broader client base of the growing Atlantic towns of the British American colonies.  He was painting actively in the colonies from 1754-1763. He arrived in Newport from Bermuda in 1754, and then traveled to Boston (1755-58), and on to Portsmouth (1758-62). He returned to London in 1763.

1754 Joseph Blackburn (fl in the colonies 1753-1763). Mary Sylvester

He arrived in his first colonial American port town with a letter of introduction from a locally known and respected member of genteel society.

1754 Joseph Blackburn (fl in the colonies 1754-1763). Abigail Chesebrough (Mrs. Alexander Grant).

The 1754 letter of introduction from a family member of one of Blackburn's former clients addressed to friends in the artist's next port-of-call encourages both Blackburn's social acceptance and his employment.

1754 Joseph Blackburn (fl in the colonies 1754-1763) Lady.

Joseph Blackburn's letter of introduction to Newport society, "I hope youl excuse the liberty I shall now take of recommending the bearer Mr Blackburne to your favor & friendship, he is late from the Island of Bermuda a Limner by profession & is allow’d to excell in that science, has now spent some months in this place, & behav’d in all respects as becomes a Gentleman, being possess’d with the agreeable qualities of great modesty, good sence & genteel behaviour he purposes if suitable encouragements to make some stay in Boston, and will be an entire stranger there...shall therefore be obliged to you or friends for any civilities you are pleased to shew him, my best Compliments...to your good lady Miss Sucky and Miss Nancy & who’s Pictures I expect to see in Boston drawn by the above Gent[lema]n."

1754 Joseph Blackburn (fl in the colonies 1754-1763). Elizabeth Pelham (Mrs. Peter Harrison).

Just like other colonial portraitists, Blackburn copied many of his poses and costumes from English mezzotints executed in the baroque style of Godfrey Kneller (1646–1723) & Peter Lely (1618–1680) and the updated rococo take of Thomas Hudson (1701–1779).

1754 Joseph Blackburn (fl in the colonies 1754-1763). Mrs David Chesebrough.

Blackburn painted fanciful depictions of the pastoral shepherdess, lavish silk gowns, and extravagant formal urns & gardens that reflected the fantasy desires of his colonial gentry clients living far from London's easy access to excess.

1757 Joseph Blackburn (fl in the colonies 1754-1763). Abigail Browne (Mrs. Joseph Blaney).

1760 Joseph Blackburn (fl in the colonies 1754-1763). Eunice Fitch

1757 Joseph Blackburn (fl in the colonies 1754-1763). Mrs James Pitts.

1757 Joseph Blackburn (fl in the colonies 1754-1763). Susan Apthorp (Mrs. Thomas Bulfinch).

1759 Joseph Blackburn (fl in the colonies 1754-1763). Hannah Babcock (Mrs. John Bours).

1761 Joseph Blackburn (fl in the colonies 1754-1763). Elizabeth Saltonstall (Mrs. Silas Deane).

1754 Joseph Blackburn (fl in the colonies 1754-1763). Mrs John Pigott of Bermuda.

1760 Joseph Blackburn (fl in the colonies 1754-1763). Hannah Wentworth Atkinson.

1761 Joseph Blackburn (fl in the colonies 1754-1763). Elizabeth Browne Rogers.

1762 Joseph Blackburn (fl in the colonies 1754-1763). Portrait of a Woman.

1762-63 Joseph Blackburn (fl in the colonies 1754-1763). Mrs Samuel Cutts.

Joseph Blackburn (American colonial era artist, 1700-1780) Mrs Thomas Jones

Joseph Blackburn (American colonial era artist, 1700-1780) Mrs. Knight of Gosfield

1755 Joseph Blackburn (American colonial era artist, 1700-1780) Abigail Russell Curwen

1762 Joseph Blackburn (fl in the colonies 1754-1763). Anne Saltenstall
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1784 Children in the Early Republic

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The Gloucester Limner JB
In nearby Baltimore, Jill and Austin Fine collected folk art for decades. One of the most endearing pieces they collected was JB by an artist dubbed the Gloucester Limner. Two other examples of his work exist at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York.
The Gloucester Limner John Wharff
The Gloucester Limner Priscilla Wharff.

American Mothers & Their Children 1700-1750

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1726 John Watson (1685-August 22, 1768). Thysje (Mrs James Henderson) with Margaret, Tessie and James II.

1729 John Smibert (1688-1751). Mrs Francis Brinley & son Francis.
1693 Mezzotint by John Smith (1652-1743) after Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723). Duchess of Ormonde and Earl of Ossory. (English mezzotint as the basis for the painting below.)

1730s Charles Bridges (1670-1747). Alice Grymes (Mrs. Mann Page II) and child. College of William & Mary.

1730s Charles Bridges (1670-1747). Mrs. Ludwell & Children.
1732 John Smibert (1688-1751). Mary Fitch (Mrs. Andrew Oliver) & son Andrew.

1741 Pieter Vanderlyn (1687-1778). Mrs. Myndert Myndertse Jannetje Persen & Sara Terra.

1750 Charles Bridges (1670-1747). Mrs Augustine Moore.
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18th-Century American Mothers & Their Children By Charles Willson Peale

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Unlike the mothers with children painted by Ralph Earl in contemporary dress, most of Charles Willson Peale's mothers depicted with their children are in loose, classical costumes. These are only a few of Peale's mother portraits, but they are representative.

1772 Charles Willson Peale 1741-1827 Ann Baldwin (Mrs. Samuel Chase) and Her Daughters Anne and Matilda.

1772 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Rachel Weeping - Mrs. Charles Willson Peale.
1773 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Mary Norris (Mrs. John Dickinson and daughter Sally.
1777-80 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) Mrs. Samuel Mifflin & Granddau Rebecca Mifflin Francis.

1785 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Ann Marsh (Mrs David Forman) and Child.
1785 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Mrs. James Crawford and Son.
1787 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) Susan Armitage (Mrs. Thomas McKean) and Daughter Sophia Dorothea.
1788 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Peggy Sanderson (Mrs. Christopher Hughes) and Daughter.
1789 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Mary Carr Grundy.
1789 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Mary Gibson (Mrs. Richard Tilghman) & sons.
1789 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Sarah Buckland (Mrs. Callahan) & Anne.
1790 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Sarah Cantwell Jones (Mrs. Robert Milligan).
1790 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Hannah Duncan and son John (Mrs. John Nicholson)
1791 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Mrs. Rachel Brewer Peale and Eleanor.
1794 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Mrs. Thomas Leiper and Her Daughter, Helen Hamilton Leiper.
1796 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Mrs. Robert Gilmore with daughters Jane and Elizabeth..

Early American Painter Charles Willson Peale

.1771 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Margaret Strachan 1747-1821 (Mrs. Thomas Harwood).

In 1741, in Queen Anne's County, Maryland, Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) was born into a financially struggling family. His bitter father Charles Peale (1709-1750), a disgraced postal clerk exciled for life from England, was working as the schoolmaster at Kent County School, Chestertown, Maryland; while his mother, the Maryland-born Margaret Triggs (1709-1791), was raising their 5 children.

1772 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Hannah Lambert (Mrs. Thomas Cadwalader).
Schoolmaster Peale died when his eldest son Charles was about 10, and within 3 years the boy was bound out to a saddler. Intrigued by some "miserably" executed landscapes he saw, he believed he could do better and bartered painting lessons & materials from John Hesselius in exchange for a saddle. It was apparent that Hesselius' clients came from Chesapeake's gentry. Peale longed for the higher social status that his father had lost through felony and exile.

1773 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Catherine Orrick (Mrs. Elihu Hall).
Peale opened his own saddle shop after his 7 year apprenticeship, and soon married the wealthier Rachel Brewer (1744-1790) in 1762, moving into polite society from which his new customers would come. But when debts from establishing his new business went unpaid, he fled his creditors by sailing to Boston, where he met John Singleton Copley & studied in his studio for a few months in 1765. When he returned to Maryland, a group of local gentry recognizing Peale's talent collected monies for him to journey to London to study with Pennsylvania expatriate Benjamin West from 1767-1769.

1774 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Elizabeth McClure (Mrs Mordecai Gist).
Marrying well & painting well gave Peale easy access to the cultured Chesapeake society that he wanted for himself and his extended family. Seeking a larger potential client base for his new found portrait skills, Charles Willson Peale moved his family to Philadelphia in 1776, where he served as a military officer in the Continental Army during the Revolution. In 1779, he was elected to the Pennsylvania Legislature.

1783 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Mary McIlvaine (1752-1818) (Mrs. Joseph Bloomfield, New Jersey Governor).
During his lifetime, the Proceedings of The Academy of Natural Sciences (Vol. 147, 14. 1997) proclaim that Peale became "an accomplished saddlemaker, watchmaker, metalworker, carriage-maker, poet, soldier, showman, natural historian, taxidermist, educator, health investigator, inventor, politician, denture-maker, writer, lecturer, engraver, and a prolific portrait painter." Peale was a hands-on experimenter and an advocate for the health benefits of physical exercise.

1784 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Hannah Stockton (Mrs. Elias Boudinot IV) (1736-1808). Princeton.
To promote public culture and house his growing collections of curiosities, Peale became a librarian and curator. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, he and his son Rembrandt began museums in Baltimore and in Philadelphia to display natural history objects & art, especially patriotic portraits.

1784 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Ann Thomas (Mrs. Thomas Russell.)
Charles Willson Peale & his wife Rachel had 11 children, naming each after famous artists, 3 of whom became painters; Rembrandt, Titian and Raphaelle. After Rachel died in 1790, he married Elizabeth DePeyster in 1792 producing 6 more children, before she died in 1804. In 1805, Peale married Hanna Moore (1755-1821) but had no more children.

1787 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Mary Chew (Mrs. Thomas Elliott). Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia.

Peale's art students included his brother James, his children, his orphaned nephew Charles Peale Polk, William Pearce, Edmund Brice, William Mercer, John Beale Bordley, Matthias Bordley, Elizabeth Bordley Gibson, & John Beale Bordley II. Peale was convinced that anyone could learn to paint, and he believed that a portrait was a patriotic & "above all a domestic symbol."

1790 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Elizabeth Snyder (Mrs. Simon Snyder).
Peale painted portraits & miniatures in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania from 1763-1776, and again in from the 1780s until his death. At the age of 81, he painted Christ Healing the Sick; and at age 83, he painted his full-length self-portrait now at the Pennsylvania Academy.

1790 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Mary Tilghman (Mrs. Edward Roberts).
An amazing amount of primary source material has been documented and published about Charles Willson Peale. See:

1790 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Eleanor Cole (Mrs. Joseph Daffin).
The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family: Volume 1, Artist in Revolutionary America, 1735-1791 by Charles Willson Peale and Lillian Miller, Yale University Press, 1983.
1790 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827) Rachel Leeds (Mrs David Kerr)
The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family: Volume 2, The Artist as Museum Keeper, 1791-1810 by Charles Willson Peale and Lillian Miller. Yale University Press, 1988
1791 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Eleanor Miller (Mrs. Francis Bailey).
The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family: Volume 3, The Belfield Farm Years, 1810-1820 by Charles Willson Peale and Lillian Miller. Yale University Press, 1992
1791 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Rachel Brewer (Mrs. Charles Willson Peale, the artist's wife).
The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family: Volume 4, Charles Willson Peale: His Last Years, 1821-1827 by Charles Willson Peale and Lillian Miller. Yale University Press, 1996
1798 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Anna de Peyster.
The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family: Volume 5, The Autobiography of Charles Willson Peale by Lillian B. Miller, Lillian Miller, Mr. Sidney Hart, and Mr. David C. Ward. Yale University Press, 2000.

18th-Century American Women by Christian Gullager 1759-1826

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1787 Christian Gullager 1759-1826 Sarah Greenleaf Mrs Oflin Boardman & Benjamin
Christian Gullager (1759–1826) was an artist specializing in portraits & theatrical scenery in the late 18th century Boston, New York City, & Philadelphia.
1789 Christian Gullager 1759-1826 Elizabeth Sewall Mrs Samuel Salisbury

Born in Copenhagen, he trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.
1789 Christian Gullager 1759-1826 Martha Saunders (Mrs Nicholas Salisbury)

He was in the early American republic by 9 May 1786, when he married Mary Selman in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

1789 Christian Gullager 1759-1826 Rebecca Salisbury Mrs Daniel Waldo

By the age of 30 in 1789, he had established himself in Boston as one of the "best portrait painters of this metropolis." Gullager worked in Newburyport in 1786, in Boston from 1789 to 1797, in New York City from the fall of 1797 to the spring of 1798, in Philadelphia from 1798 to 1805, and in New York again in 1806–07.
1791-92 Christian Gullager 1759-1826 Matilda Davis Williams

Gullager also advertised himself as a miniaturist, although no surviving miniatures are attributed to him.

1797 Christian Gullager 1759-1826 Sarah Woodhul Forman (1781-1811.

There is little known of the last 20 years of his life, except for his return in 1826 to Philadelphia, where he died..