Two more Pierrepont family paintings have joined our collection. We are indebted to Kathryn Pierrepont Winter, her husband the late Ralph Winter, and their children for the gift of these handsome works. A pair of portraits of Brooklyn Heights developer and merchant, Hezekiah Beers Pierrepont and his wife Anna White Constable have been added to our gallery. Pierrepont was a key investor in Robert Fulton’s steam ferry service, accurately predicting the explosive transformation and suburbanization that would result from connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn in 1814. He was a descendant of Rev. James Pierpont, a founder of Yale University. Hezekiah reintroduced the original spelling of his family’s name which was French in origin. If you look closely at this painting, the profile of Governor’s Island can be seen in the background.
Hezekiah and Anna’s portraits are by the 19th century American artist Henry Inman. Born in 1801 to English immigrants, Inman was an apprentice to John Wesley Jarvis (whose portraits of John Jay and Peter Augustus Jay are also represented in our collection.) Inman was a founder of the National Academy of Design, serving as Vice President and later President of this institution whose mission was “to promote the fine arts in America through instruction and exhibition.” The Academy included artistic titans like Thomas Cole and Asher Durand. Like Cole and Durand, Inman’s paintings can be found at institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harvard’s Peabody Museum, Brooklyn Museum and the Smithsonian to name a few. He painted President Martin Van Buren, Chief Justice John Marshall and actress Fanny Kemble.
Some of Inman’s most powerful works include depictions of Native American warriors and chiefs of the 19th century. Inman was commissioned to make copies of a collection of canvases originally painted by Charles Bird King of the delegates of many tribes who traveled to meet President James Monroe in the early 1800s. King’s portraits were later destroyed in a fire but fortunately Inman’s copies survived. Inman’s paintings capture the strength and nobility of these dignified leaders of the Sioux, Pawnee, Seminole and Creek people during a turbulent chapter of American history.
These pieces expand our understanding of the relationships between artists, their apprentices and their peers in nineteenth century New York. We can invite students and scholars to compare and contrast their styles firsthand and also further research their influences on each other and the generations of artists that followed.