Attributed to Micah Williams (New Jersey and New York, 1782-1837) Portrait of a Child Seated in a Paint-decorated Windsor Chair.

Description:

Attributed to Micah Williams (New Jersey and New York, 1782-1837)

Portrait of a Child Seated in a Paint-decorated Windsor Chair. Unsigned. Pastel on paper, c. 1820, depicting the child with blue-gray eyes wearing a white ruffled bonnet, white dress, and gold beaded necklace, seated in a Windsor chair with yellow decoration, holding a peach, sight size 20 1/2 x 16 in., in a period black and gilt eglomise mat and molded giltwood frame, the reverse of the frame and backing boards bear remnants of newspaper. Condition: Tears u.r., u.l. and l.l., light stains to upper corners.

Literature: This lot resembles another portrait of a child portrayed sitting in a painted chair and holding a peach with similar background color. It is illustrated in Small Folk: A Celebration of Childhood in America, by Sandra Brant and Elissa Cullman, E.P. Dutton, publisher, New York, 1980, p. 75.

Note: Micah Williams worked mainly in pastels, working in the vicinity of Monmouth County, New Jersey. He usually lined the pastel paper with newspaper, as was done in this example.
Estimate $20,000-30,000

Not examined out of frame, the paper is backed with cardboard, which from the front, looking at the tears, appears to NOT be laid onto the cardboard. There are thin inner- and wide outer, stretcher-like boards holding the work in the frame. The thin inner stretchers apear to be glued to the cardboard backing, the wide stretchers are nailed to the frame and appear tofollow the form of the tears, as they follow along its edges. Also there are either tears or creases from the top of the child''s bonnet and going down through the crest and right stile of the chair. A few spots of pastel pigment has migrated to some spots where the paper has raised.

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