Mrs. Samuel Mifflin and Her Granddaughter Rebecca Mifflin Francis
1777–80
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
50 1/8 x 40 1/4 in. (127 x 101.8 cm)
Classification
Painting
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Egleston Fund, 1922
Accession Number
22.153.2
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the heart of the American Revolution (1775–1783), Charlesson Peale captured a tender moment of familial intimacy in *Mrs. Samuel Mifflin and Herdaughter Rebecca Mifflin Francis*1777–80). This oil-on-canvas portrait, measuring 50 1/8 x 40 1/4 inches, depicts Esther DeBerdt Mifflin, wife of merchant and patriot Samuel Mifflin, with her young granddaughter Rebecca. Peale, a leading figure in early American art and founder of the nation's first public museum, specialized in realistic, dignified portraits that celebrated the emerging nation's elite families. Painted amid wartime upheaval, the w...
About the Artist
Charles Willson Peale · 1741–1827
Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827) was an American painter, museum founder, naturalist, and inventor who became the most important American portraitist of the Revolutionary era and a central figure in the cultural life of the young republic. Born in Queen Anne's County, Maryland, he initially trained as a saddler before turning to painting, studying briefly with John Singleton Copley in Boston and ...