Portrait of Johannes Lawyer (1684-1762)

DateProbably 1710-1725

OriginAmerica, New York, New York City or Schoharie

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 41 3/8 x 34 3/8in. (105.1 x 87.3cm) and Framed: 47 1/4 x 40 1/4in.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1958.100.19

DescriptionA three-quarter-length portrait of a standing man, his body turned slightly towards the viewer's left, his eyes to the viewer. His proper left (near) arm is bent at the elbow and, in that hand, he clasps a small, closed book. His proper right (far) arm is extended; in that hand, he holds a quill pen and, with it, writes on the white top (or on a piece of paper laid on the white top?) of a paneled architectural ledge beside him. Beyond the ledge, a column is visible and, in the upper left corner of the composition, an arched window through which three trees, staggered in height, are seen against a pink and blue sky. The upper right corner of the composition is filled with a triangular swath of pulled green drapery.
The man wears a collarless, wide-skirted, reddish-brown coat with black buttons, deep cuffs, and flap pockets. Beneath it, he wears a black waistcoat, and a white shirt that is gathered into simple bands at neck and cuffs. He has curly, shoulder-length brown hair; brown eyes; and bushy, dark gray eyebrows.

Artist unidentified.

The 3 1/8-inch frame is a period replacement. It consists of a black-painted bolection molding with a gilded liner having a carved sight edge and a barely-visible sanded outer edge.

Label TextThe painting's date is suggested by costume details which, if accurately assessed, make the portrait one of the earliest of a German-speaking emigrant to America and, also, the earliest likeness in the Folk Art Museum's collection. Johannes Lawyer (1684-1762) was born in Durlach, Germany. The exact date of his arrival in New York City is uncertain, but he worked as a merchant there before traveling north to the area of present-day Schoharie.

Most of the portrait was rather flatly painted, but considerable attention was lavished on the face, where interesting details include bushy eye brows, finely-drawn wrinkles at the corners of the eyes, a distinctly cleft chin, and a pronounced philtrum (the double ridge running vertically between nose and upper lip).

The inscription at lower left seems to be "mirror writing," and it is thought to read, "Vive ut/vivas", a common Latin phrase loosely meaning "Live life to the fullest."

InscribedAn inscription in upright script in black paint appears at lower left in the composition. It has been transcribed inadequately the past. If, as seems to be the case, it represents "mirror writing," then the latest (12/16/2011) estimate of the Latin wording is: "Vive ut/vivas", a common Latin phrase and occasional family motto loosely meaning "Live life to the fullest."
N. B. This transcription assumes that the word shown in the process of being formed is the last word in the phrase. One surmises that the artist used artistic license in depicting the subject writing from bottom to top, rather than vice versa, in order to render the wording more easily read by the painting viewer.

ProvenanceThe subject's line is not well documented as yet. The painting is said to have descended in the family of the subject's second wife, Anna Maria Michael. See "Notes," where both Simms and Van Schaik ("Bibliography") refer to a portrait, presumably 1958.100.19, in the hands of Michaels/Michael family descendants in, respectively, 1845 and 1871. It is unclear whether their statements imply a bypassing of the subject's own children in favor of his step-chldren, i.e., children brought to the marriage by Lawyer's second wife Anna Maria Michael. Or did the two families intermarry at other, subsequent points? For instance, William G. Michaels (1789-1844) married a Maria Lawyer (1792-1867)[Cohen, handwritten p. no. 153].

Thence, eventually, from Michael/Michaels owners to AARFAM's earliest documented owner, Charles W. Grant, Schoharie, NY (who, in 1940, identified the subject as "my ancestor"); sold to J. Stuart Halladay and Herrel George Thomas, Sheffield, Mass. Halladay died in 1951, leaving his interest in their jointly-owned collection to his partner, Thomas. Thomas died in 1957, leaving his estate to his sister, Mrs. Albert N. Petterson, who was AARFAM's source.

Exhibition(s)