Anna Claypoole Peale (March 6, 1791 – December 25, 1878) was an American painter who specialized in portrait miniatures on ivory and still lifes.

[5] Anna served a five-year apprenticeship with her father, in whose studio she was later joined by her sisters Sarah Miriam and Margaretta Angelica.

From about 1810, Peale's paintings are generally signed, and as the artist adapted a professional persona, she added the initial C, an acknowledgement of her mother's family, the Claypooles, to her signature.

Twelve years later, in 1824, Anna and her sister Sarah Miriam became the first women elected as academicians to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Anna married William Staughton on August 27, 1829, who died in December 1829, in Washington, D.C.[9] After his passing, she returned to Philadelphia to continue her studio portrait practice.

The gracefully precise portrait of Little Girl, an 1817 watercolor on ivory, was one of several works that launched Anna Claypoole Peale's reputation, circa 1817.

Rather than exploring the translucency of the ivory to render skin tones, Peale used dark rich colors and glazing to resemble the effect of oil paints, and this became the hallmark of her style.

Numerous men and women from Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, Washington and Richmond Virginia, including many businessmen and their wives, also became sitters.

Charles once said, “Her merit in miniature painting brings her into high estimation, and so many Ladies and Gentleman desire to sit for her that she frequently is obliged to raise her prices.”[12] Anna's brother also assisted her in her early success by accompanying her on her trip to Boston.

Anna Claypoole Peale was known to have painted at least one hundred and forty miniatures, still lifes, landscapes and portraits in oils.

[8] Anna's style was influenced by her father, who taught her how to skillfully blend pigments to control color density with watercolors on ivory.

The mission of this trip was to promote Anna's “potential for commercial success,” to seek commissions and to produce portraits to send back to Philadelphia to be put on exhibition at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

John Wayles Eppes (1773–1823), Thomas Jefferson's son-in-law, was one of the prominent men who visited the Peales' studio in Washington.

She wrote to her cousin Titian Ramsay Peale (1799–1885): "I have so much work to do that I hardly know what to do with myself and am looking out the window...While sitting at my painting this afternoon--Mr. Sully came down to give us tickets and invitations from Mr. Calhoun to attend his anatomical lectures as relating to the arts--Sally [Sarah Miriam Peale] and myself ... were much interested in a lecture on the human skull.

During their time in Washington, Anna and Charles also had the opportunity to paint the portrait of Major General Andrew Jackson (1767–1845), who later became the seventh president of the United States.

She positioned Jackson low on the ivory against a turbulent, cloud-filled sky, handled like a theatrical backdrop evoking past battles.

In a letter Anna wrote to Titian Ramsay Peale II in April 1819, she explained that she had been given tickets by Thomas Sully to attend 15 anatomical lectures by Mr. Calhoun with her sister Sarah Miriam.

[4] However, after hearing this, Charles Willson Peale wrote to his family and questioned the motives of his granddaughter's portrait being given to a married man.

Because this portrait does not have the same degree of delicate color work as others Anna was producing at the time, it is suspected that Charles’ letter caused her to leave the painting unfinished.

She completed another portrait of an extended member of the Peale clan in 1824, Abraham Sellers[14] (Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia).

A critic commented on her portrait of Mrs. Judson, wife of the Burmese Missionary: "dress extremely well finished...but the face appeared as if emerging from a murky atmosphere".