Philadelphian Anna Claypoole Peale painted this dashing miniature portrait of Richard Mentor Johnson (who would become the ninth vice president of the United States) in 1818 during a visit to her uncle, artist Charles Willson Peale, who was working at the time in Washington, D.C. Female artists were certainly as rare in the United States as elsewhere, and few women had the opportunity to become artists if they were not related or married to one.