Margaretta Peale was one of the six surviving children of the American artist James Peale (1749-1831) and his wife, Mary Claypoole Peale (1753-1829), and one of three daughters he instructed who were active as artists. Unlike her elder sister, miniature painter Anna Claypoole Peale (1792-1878), and her younger sister, portraitist and still life painter Sarah Miriam Peale (1800-1885), who pursued strong independent careers, M. Peale remained at home with her parents. Although James produced exceptional miniatures, oil portraits, small scale history paintings, landscapes and still life pictures throughout his career, his health was erratic, due in part to injuries incurred during his service in the Revolutionary War. M. Peale’s presence and the development of her artistic skills provided him with the support he sometimes needed to sustain
his career during difficult periods.

M. Peale began painting still life pictures in about 1813 and specialised in small table-top arrangements that frequently included fruit. Like her sister, S. Peale, she often borrowed compositional elements from the work of her father or her cousin, Raphaelle Peale (1774–1825), to create her own characteristic compositions. Unlike the still life pictures of James and Raphaelle, who are the acknowledged founders of the American still life tradition, her work manifests neither the intense illusionism of Raphaelle’s canvases nor the compositional complexity of those by James. Rather, her compositions are typically bold and rich in colour.

They’re more stylistically naïve qualities, like those painted by her sister, S. Peale, have also found favour with contemporary collectors. Despite her low public profile, between 1828 and 1837 she exhibited ten still life pictures at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). During the 1830s, she listed her paintings “for sale”, which indicates she was seeking to establish a market for her work. She also exhibited a picture at the Boston Athenaeum in 1830 and during the same year displayed a “Portrait of a Lady” at PAFA labelled “the first portrait executed by the artist”. Although no other portraits appear on her exhibition record, privately held portraits of family members exist. In short, M. Peale’s body of work may have been more substantial than traditionally acknowledged and examples of her still life pictures from the 1860s are in both public and private collections. However, misattributions and other factual inaccuracies about her work have been published, which illustrates the need for more careful and systematic research to firmly establish her oeuvre.