Portrait of Jane Vanderveer (1801-1877)

Date1819

Artist Micah Williams (1782-1837)

MediumPastel on paper on strainers of tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipfera), in original 1 7/8-inch cove molded, black-painted frame.

DimensionsUnframed: 23 3/4 x 19 1/2in. and Framed: 26 7/8 x 23in.

Credit LineAcquisition partially funded by David and Mary Chambers

Object number1986.200.1

DescriptionA half-length portrait of a woman shown with her arms folded across her waist. She wears a ring on the index finger of her proper left hand and, in her proper right hand, clasps the chain attached to an emerald green purse having a gold-colored metal closure. She wears a yellow, high-waisted dress with a white ruffled collar. Around her neck is a double strand necklace, with a clasp or a decorative element worn in the front. Her brown hair is piled on top of her head and held with a tortoiseshell comb, while ringlets frame her face. The background is a blue-streaked reddish brown.
Label TextWilliams's image of young Jane Vanderveer represents the artist at his best. The deep, interlocking curves and folds of Jane's dress offer an aesthetically rewarding display of linear detail; so do the fine pleats of her lawn collar, where the pastels also admirably suggested spatial recession within the picture plane through his careful angling of the sharp ruff creases. The emerald green of Jane's pocketbook contrasts pleasingly with her lemon yellow dress, and soft brown curls frame her pretty face. A blue-streaked, brick-colored ground serves as a handsome backdrop without distracting attention from the subject.

Jane Vanderveer was portrayed by Williams on January 13, 1819, as was her brother, John G. Vanderveer, whose portrait is also in the CWF collection.
InscribedA label, apparently original, handwritten in script in ink, appears on the reverse, cut out and adhered to the portrait's paper dust cover; the label reads, "Jane Vanderveer/Was Born Oct 13th 1801 Likeness Was/taken January 13th 1819 Aged 17 years/taken By Michah [sic] Williams in monmouth".

When the portrait was acquired, it retained its original secondary support of sheets of newspaper (a typical Williams finishing/framing technique); these bore an 1817 date. Conservation treatment by Marilyn Weidner in 1988 included deacidifying, mending, and flattening these newspaper sheets plus encapsulating them (to prevent their acid migrating into the primary support) and affixing them against the back of the picture. It does not appear that any transcription has been made of the newspaper sheets, or it is clear whether a masthead is included in the fragments surviving behind the picture.

Also when the portrait was acquired, it had, apparently as a dust cover, a sheet of creased brown paper glued to the reverse of the frame. As in the case of the newspaper, Weidner (see above) also treated, encapsulated, and returned this paper to its original position behind the portrait per se. The brown paper appears to have been used as parcel post wrapping; about 2/3 down on the left side, back, are two 7-cent stamps (showing George Washington) and an ink script inscription reading, "[M]r P. Welch/[missing] 3 Broadway/Freehold/New Jersey." Another inscription (a return address?) is above this, about 1/3 down on the same side; it is largely illegible but appears to end in the words, "New Jersey."

ProvenanceLackman (AARFAM's source) obtained the portrait from a Mrs. Elizabeth Brown, who is NOT a Vanderveer family descendant but whose mother had been close friends with Mr. Perine Welch of Adelphia, New Jersey, who WAS a Vanderveer descendant. Mr. Welch and Mrs. Brown were members of the same church. [See B. Luck memo to file of 12/29/1986].