Abigail Inskeep Bradford

Abigail Inskeep Bradford

Rembrandt Peale, 1803–8

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Artist: Rembrandt Peale (American, 1778–1860)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 68.6 × 55.9 cm (27 × 22 in.)
Museum: Art Institute of Chicago
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

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.

Text: Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0.

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