American Art Collaborative

Rachel Leeds Kerr was the wife of Lt. David Kerr, a justice of the peace in Talbot, Maryland, and member of the Maryland House of Delegates. Like all of Charles Willson Peale's works, this portrait has a linear quality, featuring strongly marked contour lines and a careful delineation of materials-largely due to Peale's self-taught background, which not even two years' study in London with Benjamin West could totally soften. Born in Maryland but based in Philadelphia for most of his career, Peale was not only one of early America's most successful artists, he also helped engineer the United States' artistic future. Besides founding the nation's two earliest art academies, he trained virtually every member of his family-especially his children, all named after famous European artists-to become painters, as well. At the Peale Museum in Philadelphia's Independence Hall, the artist exhibited natural history specimens, natural and scientific curiosities, and life portraits of the historical and cultural figures who had led to the creation of the United States. Thus, in both the public and private spheres, Peale was one of the leading figures to promote and disseminate culture in the new United States.