Charles Willson Peale’s elegant portrait of a contemplative Mary Rench Rush, the wife of the prominent Philadelphia judge Jacob Rush and a mother of five girls, was unusual for its time. Rather than presenting Rush as a mother, Peale showed her with symbols of her artistic and musical accomplishments.

Years earlier, Peale had given Rush lessons in miniature painting, and she successfully supported her young brother and widowed mother by selling paintings and drawings to clients like Elizabeth Willing Powel, the wife of Philadelphia mayor Samuel Powel. In this painting, an open palette, a brush, and a completed miniature portrait are displayed alongside an English guitar and sheet music for the popular contemporary song "The Blush of Aurora: A Favorite of the Muses."