ExclusiveRosalba Peale: The Forgotten Artist of America’s First Art Family

Welcome to American Legends. My name is Tiffany Brannan. Each culture has its legends, and that could be myths or different stories, but here in America, our greatest legends are the wonderful heroes who are right from our history pages. Now, some of these heroes are very famous and some are obscure, but each person deserves to be discovered because each man or woman stands as a great example of how we can be better Americans The very spirit of America is that the individual isn't defined by his family background, his rank, or his position. Since the nation is founded on the idea that all men are created equal, each individual has the possibility of making his own way, not reliant on what those who came before him did. In the 250 years since the founding fathers penned those inspiring words in the Declaration of Independence, politicians, philosophers, and individual citizens alike have grappled with what that means to the individual's life. In recent generations, this notion of being independent has caused many people to be almost rebellious against what their ancestors have done. Because of that, in the last few generations, family businesses have dwindled, as have useful trades, while many young people are saddled with a lot of student loan debt. Earlier in American history, though, citizens realized that independence and following one's own path doesn't necessarily mean that you shouldn't follow in the footsteps of your parents in terms of your vocation. Today, we're going to talk about an artist who was the third generation in her family to be an excellent portrait painter, copyist, and landscape artist. This lady was named after a famous Italian portrait painter, and her name is Rosalba Carriera Piel. Rosalba Carriera Piel was born on July 28, 1799 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father was Rembrandt Piel, and as you can tell from his first name, it ran in the family to have a propensity for naming one's children after famous artists. You see, Rembrandt's father, Rosalba's grandfather, was Charles Wilson Piel, one of the foremost portrait painters in America around the time of the Revolution. He loved art so much that he named most of his 17 children after famous artists or other men and women of letters and thinking. His son, Rembrandt, who was his second born son, and arguably the most successful artist to come out of his children, followed in his father's example by naming some of his own children after artists. Rembrandt had nine children of his own with his first wife, and the first of these was Rosalba. She was born when he was 21, just around a year after he got married. His wife, Eleanor May Short, was two years older than he was. They named their daughter Rosalba Carriera after an Italian Rococo painter who popularized the style of pastel painting in Europe, and she remained the most renowned pastel portraitist up until the year 1800. Inspired by her work, Rosalba was named after her, and she, with a name like that, and a father and grandfather who both were great painters, really had no choice but to become an excellent artist herself. Throughout her childhood, she was tutored in art by her father, and she seemed to have taken it up very readily. She developed a close bond with her father and became his assistant in art in many ways. She was the only one of the nine children to really become a professional painter or artist of any kind, although some of her siblings did have other artistic bends. In addition to teaching her how to use a paintbrush and palette, Rembrandt taught Rosalba, who was nicknamed Rosa, how to think for herself, how to be an intelligent, independent woman. As a result, she didn't follow the somewhat common path of the day of dating married young. Now, she had many suitors because she was a lovely young lady and a very charming person, but she was determined that she would not marry the everyman. She wanted a man who was exceptional and who doubtless could match her intellectualism and her artistry. Now, one of her suitors was a man who really couldn't be called an everyman. His name was John Neill, and he is remembered as an author and a reviewer and, most notably, an art critic. In fact, he's considered the first art critic in America. Because of this, in the 1820s, he spent a lot of time at the museum which Rembrandt Peale founded, which was called the Peale Museum, and it was in Baltimore. So, he spent a lot of time at the museum looking at the art, becoming acquainted with the family, sitting for portraits by some of the other members of the family and courting Rosalva. I don't know why they didn't actually get together. He ended up marrying another woman and many years later, but during the 1820s, it's clear that he admired her greatly. He wrote of her, her mind is excellent. Her father has always taught her to think for herself, to reason and to be firm without wrangling or argument in the expression of her opinions. Like her father, Rosalva became a successful portraitist. Like her uncle, Raphael, she became a regarded landscape painter. She was a copyist, like many painters of the day, reproducing works by her father and other artists, and she also became skilled in the unusual art of lithography. This was a form of printing which allowed the copying of images, popularized and made most famous through the work of Currier and Ives, but it was indeed a specialized skill which took a lot of artistry to make these sketches on the stones which would be used for reproduction. So, she used lithography to reproduce many of her paintings. It's ironic when researching Rosalba to see how few of her paintings can easily be found. In fact, I only was able to find one painting which she herself actually rendered. If you look up paintings by Rosalba Piel, you'll either find paintings by Rosalba Carrera, her eponym, or you'll find three paintings in which she is not the painter but the subject. In 1820, Rembrandt Piel made a beautiful portrait of his daughter Rosalba, then 21, in which she's wearing a striking red dress with a little ruff and soft curls frame her beautiful but sensitive and intelligent face. You can see from this portrait why she had many suitors. It's an interesting style she's wearing because I would say that it's hearkening to an earlier time period and it certainly shows the skill of Rembrandt Piel as well as the sensitive nature of his daughter. The Brooklyn Museum describes Rosalba as a constant aid in her father's work and this artistic temperament is reflected in another painting which depicts Rosalba called The Sisters. It's a double portrait from 1826 which features both Rosalba and her younger sister Eleanor who was a musician and worked with tapestry. This painting shows how similar they were in physical appearance as well as how close they were spiritually because they're very close in proximity in this painting. In it, Rosalba is holding some paintbrushes in a palette by which her father was reflecting her own great talent and the tapestry nearby shows her sister's talent. It's a lovely example of feminine grace of the 1820s but also intelligence and refinement. The third painting by Rembrandt Piel which depicts his daughter is A Girl at the Window. If that name sounds familiar to you it could be because the Dutch Rembrandt, Mr. Piel's eponym, painted his own version of A Girl at the Window so this was Piel's take on that work whereas the original Dutch Rembrandt depicted a somewhat younger girl with what looks almost like a servant girl because of her slightly ruddy complexion. Rembrandt Piel had a more idealized take on it but you can see if you look at the two paintings side by side that it's exactly the same pose and the girls wear almost the same clothing with a little headband the gold chains and very similar facial expression but although this painting was rendered in 1846 by which point Rosalba was in her 40s it clearly is a depiction of his oldest daughter in her youth or almost childhood as you can recognize her features from the two portraits of her in her 20s but her face is much rounder so I think he was probably copying it from his memories and possibly some earlier sketches he had of her. The one existing painting that I was able to find actually painted by Rosalba is a portrait of the woman after whom she was named and it's a beautiful oil on canvas which she painted in 1819 so she was only 20 when she painted this but the skill and technique are excellent. It's a very noble almost mythological rendering of this lady and the colors are much more vibrant and intense than any of the self-portraits by Rosalba Carriera herself because she worked in pastel so hers are more muted and dreamy but this has the intense vibrant colors which you'll find in a lot of portraiture of that era and even 100-200 years earlier such as the portraits of queens and I think that Rosalba Carriera looks a bit like an Italian queen in this painting. She's wearing very rich colored gowns with a satin sheen which you can very impressively see on the artwork and in her left hand she's proudly holding her paint brushes and palette as it's a tribute from one female artist to another of a woman who treasured and loved the creation of beautiful paintings. Now apparently eventually Rosalba found a man who was not an everyman because at the age of 62 she finally got married for the first time. She married a merchant who had spent a lot of time in England and traveled around a lot and it seemed that in him she found a perfect community of feelings. They were only married for nine years before he died but I think that she must have thought it was worth waiting to find the right person even if it was only for a short time. Rosalba Carriera Peale certainly is not a well-known name. I think that she is an example of how artistic talent is something which is both inherited and nurtured. Clearly artistry and inspiration ran in the family as you can see there were so many successful painters in this family as well as museum curators, lithographers, photographers or mythologists if you can call that an art but it certainly was following in the patriarch Charles Wilson Peale's footsteps of loving unique different types of displays such as taxidermy and museums and Rosalba followed in in that legacy by being nurtured in art by her father just as her father was nurtured in art by his father and Charles Wilson Peale himself was a self-taught artist who was just a leather worker who eventually decided he wanted to have art in his life and he loved it so much that he had to share it with all his children and grandchildren and it just extended beautifully. Rosalba Carriera Peale was an excellent artist herself as well as a woman who inspired others with her dedication to her craft and her legacy of using excellent technique in painting. Thank you for spending this time with me and I hope you'll join me next time for more American Legends.