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Collections: American Art: Mrs. David Forman and Child

Mrs. David Forman and Child

The wife of a wealthy Continental army officer and the mother of eleven children, Mrs. David Forman was portrayed by Charles Willson Peale in an interior that was meant to suggest the elegance and bounty of her domestic life. Peale was one of the rare American colonial artists to include paintings in his portrait interiors. The presence of the landscape hanging behind Ann Forman signaled the cultured life of the Forman household, and the gently idealized curves of its composition offered a parallel to the sitter's natural feminine beauty and grace.

Artist: Charles Willson Peale, American, 1741-1827
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dates: ca. 1785
Dimensions: 51 x 39 3/8 in. (129.5 x 100 cm)
Signature: Unsigned
Collections: American Art
Museum Location: This item is on view in American Identities: A New Look, 5th floor
Accession Number: 23.51
Credit Line: Carll H. de Silver and Museum Collection Funds
Image: Overall, 23.51_reference_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph

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