Margaretta Ann Ryan (Mrs. John Wallace Thompson)

James Peale (1749–1831)

1817

Oil on canvas

Sewell C. Biggs bequest; 2004.440

Portraits of women from this period reveal the extent to which Napoleon’s style pervaded American fashion. Women modeled their appearance after marble Greek and Roman statues. Fashionable dress turned to shear fabrics, body-conforming drapery, and the characteristic high, or “Empire,” waist silhouette.