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The sitter is posed in a romantic setting wearing fashionable attire, but Peale did not soften her intense gaze or prominent nose.

Helen and her husband founded McLean Seminary, a girls' school in Indianapolis.

Peale was a member of a Philadelphia family of prominent American painters.

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Rembrandt Peale

Helen Miller (Mrs. Charles G. McLean), about 1810-1820

oil on canvas

Gift of Fifteen Pupils of McLean Seminary

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Rembrandt Peale was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania the second son and third surviving child of Charles Willson Peale.  He began to draw at the age of eight under the tutelage of his father.  At age thirteen, the young Peale painted his first self-portrait.  At age 17, he painted the last portrait from life of George Washington.  This portrait began Peale’s career as a portrait painter.  He traveled to Europe on numerous occasions to study art.  In 1801, Peale painted what would become one of his most famous portraits, Rubens Peale with a Geranium, a portrait of his brother, the youngest of the six surviving children of Charles Willson Peale. Much of Rembrandt Peale’s success lies in his numerous portraits of George Washington and other noted politicians.  Occasionally he veered from portraits to neoclassical subjects with limited success.  Peale painted over 600 paintings and was one of the most prolific political painters of his time.

Although Rembrandt Peale depicts Helen Miller posed before a romantic landscape in fashionable hairstyle and Empire-waist gown, he apparently chose not to soften her intense gaze or prominent nose.  Dr. Charles McLean, a Presbyterian minister married Miss Miller in 1815, and the couple moved to Indianapolis where they founded a girls school known as the McLean Seminary. This painting is one of a series by Rembrandt Peale of the Miller family including Helen’s mother, father and three sisters.  All the sisters married Presbyterian ministers. 

Reference

Lillian B. Miller. Rembrandt Peale 1778-1860: A Life in the Arts, Philadelphia: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1985. ISBN-13: 978-1422358276