Charles Wilson Peale. Portrait of Mrs. Joseph Bloomfield

Charles Wilson Peale. Portrait of Mrs. Joseph Bloomfield, the wife of General Bloomfield (see PA 8), signed C.W. Peale and dated Pinx. 1783, lower left, oil on canvas, 30" x 25". Mary Mcllvaine was the daughter of William and Ann Emerson McIlvaine, she married Major Joseph Bloomfield, Governor of New Jersey in 1778, he later became a general during the War of 1812. Listed by Sellers #55, who states that, "This portrait which was painted at the close of the Revolutionary War shows some of the characteristics of both Peale's colonial and post-Revolutionary periods. It still holds the charm of his earlier work, and is a combination of silvery white, pale flesh tint and pale blue against a dark background, which adds a romantic feeling to the sweetness of the face.

Provenance: after her death in 1818 and General Bloomfield's subsequent remarriage this painting was returned to her father and remained in her family until the 1930's when it was sold by her descendant Mrs. H. Evan Taylor of Philadelphia to Grand Central Art Galleries, New York, who in turn sold it to the IBM collection in 1950.

Exhibitions: First exhibited in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts — Exhibition of Portraits by Charles Wilson Peale, April 1923, No. 230, pg. 190, exhibited by the IBM Foundation 12 times, listed in Charles Coleman Sellers Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Wilson Peale, Philadelphia, 1952, No. 55, pg. 34, illustrated No. 137 on pg. 304.