拍品专文
According to Port of Philadelphia records in 1784, at the age of 26, Harding Williams became a captain of small ships and schooners whose routes ran along the eastern seaboard. Between 1787 and 1796 he undertook transatlantic voyages, and port records identify Bordeaux, Lisbon, Glasgow and Dublin as principal stopping points.
Harding married Rebecca Dickinson in 1788 at the First Baptist Church, Philadelphia. They lived in Philadelphia until 1798 when they moved with two children to New Castle, Delaware. During this period, New Castle launched an attempt to increase the commerce of its port by allowing dockage for boats before their arrival at Wilmington or Philadelphia. Perhaps this effort attracted Williams to the city as he is listed in court records as owner of property number 14, the Strand.
Harding's property combined a home for his four children and wife with a tavern and inn. After establishing the business, he became involved in 1801 in the city's politics as a commissioner. Harding Williams died in 1813 and is buried in the Immanuel Episcopal Cemetery in New Castle.
The portrait of Harding Williams is attributed to Abraham Delanoy based on stylistic evidence. The treatment of Harding's hair, facial features, and hands is similar to that seen in identified Delanoy portraits, particularly that taken of John Sherman.
Between 1784 and 1787 Delanoy advertised in New Haven as a portrait painter. In 1787 he sold his shop and left New Haven. By 1790 he was living in Westchester until his death in 1795. It seems probable that Harding Williams commissioned Delanoy sometime between 1784 and 1787 to paint his portrait during a furlough in New Haven while engaged in coastal voyages.
For further information on Abraham Delanoy, please see Susan Sawitzky, "Abraham Delanoy in New Haven," The New York Historical Society Quarterly, 41, no. 2 (April, 1957), pp. 193-206; and Christine Skeeles Schloss, The Beardsley Limner and Some Contemporaries (Williamsburg, 1972).
Harding married Rebecca Dickinson in 1788 at the First Baptist Church, Philadelphia. They lived in Philadelphia until 1798 when they moved with two children to New Castle, Delaware. During this period, New Castle launched an attempt to increase the commerce of its port by allowing dockage for boats before their arrival at Wilmington or Philadelphia. Perhaps this effort attracted Williams to the city as he is listed in court records as owner of property number 14, the Strand.
Harding's property combined a home for his four children and wife with a tavern and inn. After establishing the business, he became involved in 1801 in the city's politics as a commissioner. Harding Williams died in 1813 and is buried in the Immanuel Episcopal Cemetery in New Castle.
The portrait of Harding Williams is attributed to Abraham Delanoy based on stylistic evidence. The treatment of Harding's hair, facial features, and hands is similar to that seen in identified Delanoy portraits, particularly that taken of John Sherman.
Between 1784 and 1787 Delanoy advertised in New Haven as a portrait painter. In 1787 he sold his shop and left New Haven. By 1790 he was living in Westchester until his death in 1795. It seems probable that Harding Williams commissioned Delanoy sometime between 1784 and 1787 to paint his portrait during a furlough in New Haven while engaged in coastal voyages.
For further information on Abraham Delanoy, please see Susan Sawitzky, "Abraham Delanoy in New Haven," The New York Historical Society Quarterly, 41, no. 2 (April, 1957), pp. 193-206; and Christine Skeeles Schloss, The Beardsley Limner and Some Contemporaries (Williamsburg, 1972).