Born this day in 1791, Anna Claypoole Perle, portrait artist. Perle was born into inner-generational visual arts family. Trained by her father like her brothers and sisters, it was Anna who stood out. Perle began to sell her work by the age of fourteen. And by the age of twenty in 1811, her work was included in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Portrait painting like her father was Anna's main stay but her talent for painting miniatures made her career. Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, New York City, Washington DC, Pearle traveled to paint her clients which included Presidents Andrew Jackson and James Monroe. Perle married late in life, and twice sadly her first husband died just three months after their marriage and it wasn't until Perle was 50 when she married General William Duncan in 1841 and this marriage lasted until Duncan's death in 1864. Perle never had any children of her own but she trained her niece Mary Jane Simes as a miniaturist. Perle's work is collected the world over.
