MARY HAWKSWORTH RIDDELL AND DAUGHTER AGNES

Charles Peale Polk worked as a portraitist in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and western Maryland.  Some of his most productive years were spent in Baltimore in the 1790s when he was working both as a portraitist and running a drawing school.  Polk was trained by his uncle, the artist Charles Willson Peale (1747-1821), whose many children also became notable painters.  Peale had studied in London with Benjamin West (1738-1820) prior to the Revolutionary War.  Polk’s portraits from this period, including the one of Mary Hawksworth Riddell (1761-1806) and her daughter Agnes, attest to how closely he followed his uncle's lead, particularly in the matter of pose, dress, and accessories.