A young Lady, facing right in orange and pink striped chiffon dress, plaited fair hair

Anna Claypoole Peale was the daughter of James Peale (see lots 87-89) and Mary Claypoole, and granddaughter of James Claypoole (1720-circa 1796), Pennsylvania's first portraitist. She was trained by her father and assisted him when his eyesight began to fail. When she married Reverend William Staughton in 1829, she gave up miniature painting but on her husband's early death she resumed work. She continued to paint portraits until her second marriage in 1841 to General William Duncan. In her notice on this artist, Dale Johnson (exhibition catalogue, American Portrait Miniatures in the Manney Collection, New York, 1990-1991, p. 159) points out that 'the details and textures of dress are exceptionally well rendered'.