Mary Jane Simes (1807-1872) was an American portrait painter who worked in both oils and painted miniatures. She was born in Baltimore in 1807 and died in 1872. Mary Jane Simes is a member of the Peale family, an important lineage of artists and cultural workers in 18th and 19th century America. She is a descendant of Charles Willson Peale, who established one of the first museums of art and natural history in the United States.[2] Her aunts were Anna Claypoole Peale and Sarah Miriam Peale, who were known as miniaturists and oil painters, respectively.[3] Simes lived with her aunt Sarah during a portion of her childhood. Her career as an exhibiting artist ended upon marriage to John Floyd Yeats.[4]
Career
Simes grew up amongst artists, and little of her early education is known.[4] However, it is believed she was the only pupil of her aunt Anna, and she was important enough during her lifetime to be referenced in a compendium of women artists.[5][6] Simes exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts throughout her short career. Simes was active from 1825 to 1835. Her work can be seen at the Maryland Historical Society,[4] the Smithsonian Museum of American Art,[2] the Cincinnati Art Museum,[7] and the Cheekwood Museum of Art.[8] Her work has been included in 20th century surveys of American Antiquities at the Baltimore Museum of Art.[9]
^ ab"Mary Jane Simes". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
^Wehle, Harry (1927). American Miniatures 1730-1850. Garden City, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 103–104.
^ abcMuseum., Cincinnati Art (2006). Perfect likeness : European and American portrait miniatures from the Cincinnati Art Museum. Aronson, Julie., Wieseman, Marjorie E. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press. p. 287. ISBN0300115806. OCLC61169825.