James Peale (American, 1749-1831) Portrait Miniatures

The Sitters: Lucy Bowen (1780-1858) was the daughter of Isaac Bowen (1740-1823) and Sarah (Whitaker) Bowen of Providence, Rhode Island. On 21 October 1802, she married Edward Yard at Christ Church, Philadelphia, joining the prosperous merchant community in which her brother, the sea captain Ezra Bowen (1770-1824), was already established. Her marriage placed her precisely within the Philadelphia mercantile circle from which James Peale drew the majority of his sitters during the height of his miniature practice. The age of the female sitter - appearing in her early twenties - is fully consistent with Lucy's age of twenty-four in 1804, and the commissioning of a paired set, with intertwined hairwork on the reverses, accords with the customary practice of newly married couples of means in Federal Philadelphia.

The Artist: Following an agreement with his elder brother Charles Willson Peale in 1786, James Peale assumed the miniature portrait practice of the Peale studio, devoting himself principally to the medium until his eyesight obliged him to abandon it around 1810. He is now regarded as among the foremost American miniaturists of the Federal period, executing more than two hundred watercolors on ivory for the Philadelphia merchant class, military officers, and members of Washington's circle. The present lot, signed and dated 1804, falls within the mature phase of his miniature production and exhibits the characteristic refinements of the period: the elongated neck, soft modeling of the features, restrained cool palette in the backgrounds, and the carefully delineated curls for which his work of this date is admired.