Micah Williams Portrait Artist - Icompendium

cAtAlogue no. 4
Clarkson Crolius
(1773-1843)
Pastel on paper
Possibly Cheesequake area,
Middlesex County, New Jersey,
circa 1817
28 x 24 inches
Collection of Edward King, Jr.
In the early 1970s, art historian Irwin F. Cortelyou
compiled a checklist of known Micah Williams portraits
as part of her research. (1) In her entry for this work, Mrs.
Cortelyou identified the sitter as Clarkson Crolius. A direct
descendant of the sitter owned the portrait at that time.
Cortelyou also noted the sitter’s marked resemblance to a
portrait of Clarkson Crolius by New York itinerant artist
Ezra Ames (1768-1836) in the collection of the New-York
Historical Society. (2)
The portrait by Williams depicts a sturdy older man with
graying hair and dark brown eyes set into a broad face with
pronounced grooves running along either side of his mouth.
The sitter, his black waistcoat buttoned up so high as to
allow only a glimpse of snowy shirtfront and stock, chose
to hold a large, narrow book, which by its shape might have
been an account book or business ledger. The book’s figured
reddish-brown leather cover echoed the same tone used for
the chair in which the subject was seated.
44 Micah Williams: Portrait Artist
Clarkson Crolius worked in the New York stoneware
pottery business begun by his grandfather, Johan William
Crolius. There are indications that the Crolius potters
were involved with the Morgan Pottery of Cheesequake in
Middlesex County in the late eighteenth century, possibly
renting from or running the pottery for the Morgan family
after Captain James Morgan’s death. (3) Clarkson Crolius
lived most of his life in New York City but visited Middlesex
County long enough to have had his portrait made.
1. Irwin F. Cortelyou (Mrs.), Micah Williams of New Jersey: Portrait Artist, With a
Catalogue of His Works. Monmouth County Historical Association, Freehold, NJ,
Curatorial files: unpublished manuscript, 1974.
2. Theodore Bolton and Irwin F. Cortelyou, Ezra Ames of Albany: Portrait Painter
(New York, NY: New-York Historical Society, 1955).
3. M. Lelyn Branin, The Early Makers of Handcrafted Earthenware and Stoneware in
Central and Southern New Jersey (Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University
Press, 1988) 35.
cAtAlogue no. 5
Rebecca Crawford Conover
(1812-1897)
Pastel on paper
Monmouth County, New Jersey,
dated 1819
23 ³⁄16 x 19 inches
Private Collection
1. Irwin F. Cortelyou, “Henry Conover:
Sitter, Not Artist,” Antiques 66, No. 6
(December 1954) 481.
Micah Williams produced this portrait of seven year old Rebecca
Crawford Conover in 1819. The portrait has a small oval panel pasted in the
lower right corner containing her initials and the year in which the portrait
was completed. The oval appears to use the same pigments as the portrait
itself, indicating that Micah Williams created this element, most likely
at the request of Rebecca’s father, Hendrick Conover.
It was an inscription on a portrait of Rebecca’s father, Hendrick (sometimes
noted as Henry) Conover that led early scholars to believe Henry Conover
was the name of the artist. When art historian Irwin F. Cortelyou examined
similar portraits attributed to Conover, she discovered inscriptions that clearly
indicated a man named Micah Williams was the creator of these works. The
portrait of Henry Conover is currently unlocated. (1)
Micah Williams: Portrait Artist 45