The son of the prominent painter Charles Willson Peale, Rembrandt Peale also extensively pursued a career in art. Between the years of 1807 and 1809, Rembrandt Peale was at his peak as a portrait painter. His portraits executed during those years may be favorably compared with those of his father. He portrayed his subjects with the same animation and character as the elder Peale. In Mrs. Thomas Lancaster Lansdale, Peale uses his typical portrait techniques to portray Cornelia Van Horn, the wife of Thomas Lansdale and daughter of Philip Van Horn, two prominent families in Revolutionary America.