Mrs. Samuel Chase (Ann Baldwin Chase) and Daughters (Ann Chase and Matilda Chase)
Description
Oil on canvas painting of "Mrs. Samuel Chase (Anne Baldwin Chase) and Daughters (Anne Chase and Matilda Chase), ca. 1772-1775, by Charles Willson Peale. Anne (1740-1776) was born in Annapolis and was the daughter of Thomas (1710-1762) and Agnes Sanders Baldwin (1716-1762). In 1762, she married Samuel Chase (1741-1811), an Annapolis lawyer, at South River Parish near Edgewater, Maryland. The couple had three sons and four daughters, three of whom did not survive childhood. Samuel was elected to the Maryland Assembly in 1764 and represented Annapolis until 1784. He later went on to serve in the Continental Congress, signed the Declaration of Independence, and was appointed Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by President George Washington. In 1772, Anne sat for this painting holding her infant child Anne (1771-1852) and older daughter Matilda (1763-1835) (Mrs. Henry Ridgely). The painting went uncompleted until 1775. In his diary entry of October 25, 1775, Charles Willson Peale wrote: "Miss Milly (Matilda) set [sic] for her face in the family picture." After it was completed, the painting hung at the Chase house (now Chase-Lloyd House) in Annapolis until it was bequeathed to the Maryland Historical Society in 1892.
Date
circa 1772-1775