Peggy Sanderson Hughes and her Daughter

ca. 1788-1789

Charles Willson Peale American, 1741-1827

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

Peggy Sanderson Hughes and her Daughter: 1 of Collection Gallery

Peggy Sanderson Hughes and her Daughter: 2 of Collection Gallery

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About the Artwork

Dressed in a fashionable and expensive dress made of imported silk, Peggy Sanderson Hughes sits in an elegant chair, probably made of imported mahogany, with one of her daughters seated on her lap. The child is probably Louisa Hughes (1787 – 1861), who inherited both this painting and a companion portrait of her father, Christopher Hughes, which is also at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
The child wears a gold necklace and and holds a large hand-carved wooden doll; both she and her doll wear silk, like her mother. The doll’s costume may have been sewn locally, perhaps from fragments of a worn-out dress, but the doll itself would have been made in England. Like the chair and the sitters’ clothes, the doll is an expensive luxury good that evidences the family’s wealth and status.
Louisa Hughes went on to marry George Armistead, who during the War of 1812 was assigned command of Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor. In August 1813, he commissioned a Baltimore seamstress, Mary Pickersgill, to produce an immense, 30 x 42–foot American flag to fly over the fort. That flag is now famous as the “Star-Spangled Banner.” After his successful defense of Baltimore, Armistead retained the flag, which stayed in the family until his grandson donated it to the Smithsonian Institution in 1912. “The Star-Spangled Banner” now hangs inside the main entrance to the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.

Title Peggy Sanderson Hughes and her Daughter

Artwork Date ca. 1788-1789

Artist Charles Willson Peale

Life Dates 1741-1827

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 36 × 27 1/2 inches (91.4 × 69.9 cm) Framed: 40 1/2 × 32 × 1 3/4 inches (102.9 × 81.3 × 4.4 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Museum Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 2010.180

Markings

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Provenance

Christopher Hughes and Margaret (Peggy) Sanderson Hughes;
their daughter, Louisa Hughes;
her son, Christopher Hughes Armistead (Baltimore, Maryland, USA);
his daughter, Agnes Gordon Armistead (Baltimore, Maryland, USA);
her son, Alexander Gordon, Jr.;
his son, Alexander Gordon, III;
his daughters, Mrs. Agnes Armistead (Gordon) Stark and Mrs. Ann McKim (Gordon) Phillips.
2010-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

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We regularly update our object record as new research and findings emerge, and we welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Charles Willson Peale, Peggy Sanderson Hughes and her Daughter, ca. 1788-1789, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, 2010.180.