Captain Abraham Vorhees ca. 1803–5 Micah Williams Williams began his career as a silver plater in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Financial hardships, however, landed him in debtors’ prison in 1814. After his release, he embarked upon his second career, as an itinerant portraitist to New Jersey’s middle class. He worked primarily in pastel, a medium that enabled him to execute likenesses quickly and inexpensively. Williams completed this portrait when the sitter was in his seventies. Signs of age are visible in the highly stylized wrinkles on his face, yet the work’s stiffness is relieved by soft p
Captain Abraham Vorhees ca. 1803–5 Micah Williams Williams began his career as a silver plater in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Financial hardships, however, landed him in debtors’ prison in 1814. After his release, he embarked upon his second career, as an itinerant portraitist to New Jersey’s middle class. He worked primarily in pastel, a medium that enabled him to execute likenesses quickly and inexpensively. Williams completed this portrait when the sitter was in his seventies. Signs of age are visible in the highly stylized wrinkles on his face, yet the work’s stiffness is relieved by soft pastel contours and accents of vibrant color, used to capture Vorhees’s piercing blue eyes and the gold buttons on his double-breasted Captain Abraham Vorhees. Micah Williams (1782–1837). American. ca. 1803–5. Pastel on off-white wove paper, mounted on a wood strainer
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Photo credit: © MET/BOT / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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