Henry L. Clark and John W. Clark

William Jennys, son of the artist Richard Jennys (ca. 1734–ca. 1809), was a prolific itinerant portrait painter who was trained by and traveled with his father from about 1792 to 1808, painting portraits along the eastern seaboard. In a newly competitive market for portrait painting that emerged in the post-Revolutionary period, Richard and William worked as a team, portraying the new citizens of the young Republic in a simple, straightforward style. Devoid of decorative detail, they painted bust-length portraits with plain backgrounds, that could be executed rapidly, as they traveled from town to town. They often employed an oval format, likely inspired by Richard’s earlier training in mezzotint portrait prints.


While William is known to have collaborated with his father, jointly signing portraits from about 1792 to 1801, he began striking out on his own, solely signing his works as early as 1800 in western Massachusetts. He also moved away from their signature oval format as he pursued a career on his own. William’s portraits are distinguished from those of his father by their strongly modeled likenesses. He achieved this effect using a grey underlayer of paint, with the flesh tones scumbled over the cool gray, as well as with strong contrasts of light and shadow.


It was at this time that William painted the two brothers John W. and Henry L. Clarke, the sons of Uzziel Clark of Sheffield, Massachusetts. In this unusual and striking vertical format, Jennys presented the strong familial resemblance between the two boys, who face each other in the portrait. They both have red hair and are identically dressed in dark coats, mustard colored vests, and white shirts with a bow tied at the neck. Turning boldly out toward the viewer, their figures are placed in a tightly cropped composition, set against a plain background.