Ezra Ames (May 5, 1768 – February 23, 1836) was a popular

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

painter in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is located on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River. Albany is the oldes ...

, during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. More than 700 portraits have been attributed to him.

Life and career

He was born in

Framingham, Massachusetts Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston ...

, in 1768. He moved to

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...

, in 1790, and married Zipporah Wood in 1794. Some time later he moved to

, where he painted a number of prominent people, including early portraits of Governor George Clinton and

Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 dur ...

. It is not known whether Ames was formally trained or not, but his work had a popular appeal. In addition to portraits and landscapes, Ames' surviving accounts books indicated he painted miniatures, carriages, fire buckets, fences, mirror frames, and furniture. Ames painted a number of

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

s, and history paintings, and was skilled at engraving. The '' Chautauqan Magazine'' describes his importance in this way; ''"(he) was the most noted portraitist in the state, outside New York city. The sure and fluent ease of his brush, his keen characterization, his pure, fresh coloring, are all remarkable for this early period. His portrait of Governor George Clinton, exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1812, won him wide notice; but he did delightful work some years earlier, and many even finer canvases are scattered through the middle states, in private hands."'' During his career Ames painted many members of the New York State legislature and retired comfortably on his savings built up during his prolific career, primarily between 1800 and 1820. In fact he became known unofficially as the ''(official)'' New York State portrait painter. Ames was an active freemason, which brought him a number of commissions from his fellows. Ames served as chairman of the Fine Arts Committee of the Society for the Promotion of Useful Arts in 1805, and was also President of the Mechanics' and Farmers' Bank of Albany. He died in 1836 and is buried at the Albany Rural Cemetery (Lot 1 Section 59). Ames was posthumously elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Fine Arts in New York City. Ames had three children, two of whom followed him into the business: Angelo Ames and Julius Rubens Ames (1801–1850).

Paintings by Ezra Ames

Image:Joseph Brant by Ezra Ames.jpg, Portrait of

Joseph Brant Thayendanegea or Joseph Brant (March 1743 – November 24, 1807) was a Mohawk military and political leader, based in present-day New York and, later, Brantford, in what is today Ontario, who was closely associated with Great Britain du ...

File:Ezra Ames - Simeon de Witt - Google Art Project.jpg, Portrait of Simeon De Witt Image:Gideon Granger.jpg, Portrait of Gideon Granger Image:Solomon Townsend by Ezra Ames.JPG, Portrait of Solomon Townsend Image:Alexander Hamilton by Ezra Ames.jpg, Portrait of

Image:Benjamin Tallmadge by Ezra Ames.JPG, Benjamin Tallmadge File:Francis Bloodgood 1768-1840.jpg, Francis Bloodgood 1768-1840 George Clinton by Ezra Ames (full portrait).jpg, George Clinton

References

*''Who Was Who in America: Historical Volume, 1607-1896.'' Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1963.

Sources

Albany Institute of History and Art article

External links

Ezra Ames at American Art Gallery
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ames, Ezra 1768 births 1836 deaths 18th-century American painters 18th-century American male artists American male painters 19th-century American painters Artists from Albany, New York Burials at Albany Rural Cemetery People from Framingham, Massachusetts Painters from Massachusetts Painters from New York (state) People from colonial Massachusetts 19th-century American male artists