Mary Jane Peale (1827-1902)

The only daughter of Rubens Peale, Mary Jane Peale was one of the third generation of the Peale family and shared the family's proclivity for the arts. She studied with Thomas Sully and her uncle, Rembrandt Peale, after which she began her career as a portrait painter in New York. It was not, however, until she returned to Pennsylvania, to care for her father, that she took up still life painting in earnest. Works such as Still Life with Bowl of Fruit demonstrate why this is most acclaimed genre of her ouevre.