Portrait of John Garret Vanderveer (1799-1883)

Date1819

Artist Micah Williams (1782-1837)

MediumPastel on paper

DimensionsUnframed: 24 x 20 1/4in. (61 x 51.4cm) and Framed: 26 13/16 x 23in.

Credit LineGift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller

Object number1931.200.3

DescriptionA half-length portrait of a young man turned slightly toward the viewer's right. His proper right arm is raised, the hand partially inserted beneath a front edge of his double-breasted dark blue coat, which has gold buttons. He also wears a white waistcoat, neck cloth, and ruffled shirt. He has light brown eyes. His medium brown hair is brushed back over the top of his head, with strands sticking forward or out on the sides. The background is an overall reddish-brown, slightly lighter around the subject.

The 2 1/2-inch molded frame is painted black with a gilded liner and is a re-built mid-nineteenth-century replacement.
Label TextThe subject was the second child born to Garret and Jane Griggs Vanderveer of Freehold, New Jersey. In 1827, he married Julia Jane Herbert (?-1880), and the couple had nine children.

Williams portrayed several members of the family and their extended network of kin in New Jersey, many of them, like the Vanderveers, having Dutch roots. John's portrait is one of two acquired by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller in 1931; the other (acc. no. 1931.200.4) was then thought to represent his wife but now seems likelier his mother.

Williams's label on John's portrait is an important source of information, providing not only the artist's name and confident identification of the subject but also a place name and the specific date of January 13, 1819. Williams dated a portrait of John's sister Jane (1801-1877) identically. Shortly afterwards, the artist executed portraits of another sister, Anna (1797-1880), Anna's husband Hendrick Smock (1797-1884), and the Smocks' two young children, Jane (1817-?) and Garret (1818-?), respectively dating the first three of these January 15, January 21, and February 16, 1819. A portrait of still another sister, Mary (1806-1898), has been recorded, but its date of execution is uncertain. Jane's portrait is owned by the Folk Art Museum (acc. no. 1986.200.1); the others are in private collections.

Because a number of Williams's portraits survived into the twentieth century in original, or near-original, condition, it can be surmised that the artist typically labeled his pictures and backed them with sheets of newspaper. Most information about Williams's working methods derives from his portraits per se. Two documents provide interesting insights, however. The first, an 1823 newspaper article, reveals that Williams was "self-taught, having never been instructed by the masters of the art." The second is a diary entry made by one of Williams's sitters; on March 19, 1823, Gerard Rutgers wrote that "M. Williams Portrait Painter took my likeness, he began in The Morning and finished by Sundown."
InscribedWilliams's handwritten label was attached to the back of the picture. Although deteriorated and now nearly illegible, its wording was reconstructed with the aid of genealogies and other references to read: "John Vanderveer/[was b]orn November 26th 179[9] Age[d] 19 y[ears]/[Like]ness was taken January 13, [1819]/By Micah Williams [illeg.] Monmouth." Regarding "Monmouth," see Note 1. Regarding the label's whereabouts, see Note 2.

ProvenancePurchased from Edith Gregor Halpert, Downtown Gallery, New York, NY, by Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in 1931; given to CWF by Rockefeller in 1939.