Rosa was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1799 and was named after Rosalba Carriera, a Venetian Rococo artist who specialized in portrait miniatures and pastel. She was the eldest of nine children born to Eleanor May (née Short) Peale (1776–1836) and her husband, Rembrandt Peale (1778–1860), an artist and museum keeper who was a prolific portrait painter. After her mother's death in 1836, her father remarried to one of his art students, Harriet Cany, who continued to paint after their marriage in 1840.
