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Captain Abraham Vorhees

ca. 1803–5
Not on view
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 jacket.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Captain Abraham Vorhees
  • Artist: Micah Williams (1782–1837)
  • Date: ca. 1803–5
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Pastel on off-white wove paper, mounted on a wood strainer
  • Dimensions: 26 x 21 15/16 in. (66 x 55.7 cm)
  • Credit Line: Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1966
  • Object Number: 66.242.15
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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