Licensing Resources
Portrait of Helen Miller (Mrs. Charles G. McLean)
about 1806
29.166
Not currently on view
Artwork Details
27-1/4 x 22-1/4 in. (canvas) 33-15/16 x 29 x 3-1/4 in. (framed)
Mark Descriptionnot inscribed
Accession NumberGift of Fifteen Pupils of McLean Seminary
CopyrightAmerican Painting and Sculpture 1800-1945
Color PalettePainted by commission from the sitter's father. Hellen Miller McLean and her husband, Charles McLean, Head of Indiana Female Seminary/McLean Seminary (1852-1860), moved to Indianapolis, Indiana after 1815. The painting was hung in the McLean Seminary until 1929 when it was donated to the John Herron Art Institute, now the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, by alumni in 1929.
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.
Rembrandt Peale was a member of a family of prominent American painters who specialized in portraiture. In addition to the lessions he received from his father, Charles Willson Peale, Rembrandt was exposed to the naturalistic English portrait style practiced by fellow Philadelphian Gilbert Stuart. Although Rembrandt depicts Helen Miller posd before a romantic landscape in fashionable hairstyle and Empire-waisted 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.
Exhibition Name
Venue
Dates
Facing the Revolution: Portraits of Women in France and the United States
Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
March 24, 2020 - March 14, 2021
Indiana Centennial Exhibit of Fine Arts and Home Industries
John Herron Art Institute and Museum
October 1, 1916 - October 31, 1916
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