Lot 2404: Attributed to Micah Williams Portrait of a Man, said to be John Williams

Attributed to Micah Williams
Portrait of a Man, said to be John Williams
Pastel on paper
21 x 25 inches

The subject of this work is said to be John Williams, a prominent resident of Belleville, New Jersey in the early ninteenth-century. According to documents in the Belleville Public Library, John Williams was both an inkeeper and part owner of a stage coach company that operated between Belleville and New York. John also delved in finance, helping to found the Belleville Manufacturers' Bank in 1834.

Though the relationship between artist and subject remains unclear, Micah Williams traveled throughout the state of New Jersey between 1816-1835 painting portraits. An article in the Monmouth Historian by Irwin Cortelyou reveals that Micah Williams was indeed in Belleville, New Jersey in March 1823 painting a portrait of another well-respected resident Gerard Rutgers.