1796
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
Portrait of Susan Coren Towers is a 1796 unspecified by James Peale, a American Folk Art work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a small oval portrait of a woman in a white dress with pink trim, her dark curls framing a face that almost smiles. James Peale painted this in 1796, when most miniatures showed stiff, formal poses. Here, the sitter’s dress is slightly crooked, her curls springy, and her lips curl up just a bit—tiny clues that she had a personality, not just a pedigree. The back holds locks of hair from two people, not one. Look up more portraits from america, late 18th century, american to see how rare this relaxed style was.
Susan Coren Towers was the daughter of a major in the Revolutionary War, and her husband was a successful woolen goods manufacturer. While little is known about Towers outside of her husband’s and father’s pursuits, Peale painted her with slightly asymmetrical clothing, bouncy curls, and a slight smirk, possible hints at her personality. While many portrait miniatures have compartments containing the sitter’s hair, this example holds hair from two individuals, likely Towers and a loved one.
Online fans of the Broadway musical Hamilton have frequently misidentified this image as a portrait of Peggy Schuyler, Alexander Hamilton’s sister-in-law.
Read the full account in the museum source.
James Peale (1749 – May 24, 1831) was an American painter, best known for his miniature and still life paintings, and a younger brother of noted painter Charles Willson Peale.
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