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Lot Essay
The portrait illustrated here, most likely by either Richard Jennys (active circa 1766-1799) or his son William (active circa 1793-1807), was executed in the stylistically shared manner characteristic of the Jennyses. These features are specifically defined by waist-length subjects painted in an oval spandrel. The similarity of the father and son's work implies that the two painted together, a professional partnership that most likely took place while Richard and William both lived in New Milford, Connecticut, circa 1792-1799.
The portrait of Mrs. Livingston was most likely painted prior to the 1790s by Richard Jennys. No paintings by William pre-dating 1793 are presently known; after 1800, he worked principally in central Massachusetts, Vermont and coastal New Hampshire. In contrast, Richard is known to have travelled in search of portrait commissions from Boston to Charleston, South Carolina, of relative proximity to Washington, D.C. In 1783-84, Richard Jennys advertised as a portait and miniature painter "late Boston and the West Indies" (see Groce and Wallace, The New-York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America, 1564-1860 (New Haven, 1957), p. 349, indicating the full breadth of his professional itinerance.
The portrait of Mrs. Livingston was most likely painted prior to the 1790s by Richard Jennys. No paintings by William pre-dating 1793 are presently known; after 1800, he worked principally in central Massachusetts, Vermont and coastal New Hampshire. In contrast, Richard is known to have travelled in search of portrait commissions from Boston to Charleston, South Carolina, of relative proximity to Washington, D.C. In 1783-84, Richard Jennys advertised as a portait and miniature painter "late Boston and the West Indies" (see Groce and Wallace, The New-York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America, 1564-1860 (New Haven, 1957), p. 349, indicating the full breadth of his professional itinerance.