Portrait of Abraham Peirce (1779-1850)

Date1845

Artist William Matthew Prior (1806-1873)

OriginAmerica, Massachusetts, New Bedford (probably)

MediumOil on cardboard, framed and glazed

DimensionsUnframed: 16 1/8 x 12 1/8in. (41 x 30.8cm) and Framed: 22 x 18in.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1989.100.1

DescriptionBust-length portrait of a man with hair combed forward and wearing long, curling sideburns. He wears a white shirt, red-orange stock, pale blue-green vest, and black coat. He poses before a plain dark background.
Label TextWilliam Matthew Prior was shrewd, capable, and versatile. Surviving portraits and newspaper advertisements make it clear that he adjusted his method of painting to suit customers' pocketbooks. For bargain-hunters, he worked in the so-called "flat" style represented here. Freed from the necessity of rendering painstaking modeling and shading, the artist could work quickly --- and therefore cheaply.

Prior captured three generations of a single family in the five Peirce portraits owned by the museum. In addition to this representation of Abraham Peirce, these show Abraham's wife, Mary Hafford Peirce (1779-1848), the couple's son and daughter-in-law, David R. Peirce (1806-1885) and Sarah Wilbur Peirce (1808-1871), and a son of the latter couple, Walter Adams Peirce (1838-1913). A bust to half-length pose that excluded hands was the cheapest option Prior offered in full-scale portraiture.

InscribedOn the backboard is painted, "Hon Mr Abraham Peirce Age 66/in July 8 last/By Wm. M. Prior 1845."
ProvenanceCurrier (see "Vendor") stated that he acquired this portrait and its companions (1989.100.2 through 1989.100.5) from a descendant of the sitter: a sister of Arthur Thomas Peirce (b. 1915) of Berkley, Mass.