Existing comment:
Thomas Ash II, 1785-after 1824
Thomas Ash "succeeded to the long established and well known manufactory of Fancy and Windsor chairs" at 33 John Street in New York City upon the death of his father, William, in 1815. He advertised that year that he had "on hand, an assortment of Chairs... of the newest fashions, and suited for domestic use or the foreign market." Ash also made frames for paintings, which may have provided the opportunity to have his portrait painted. A rare depiction of an early American craftsman, this is also one of the first works by the young Thomas Sully, who later became the preeminent American portrait painter of the Jacksonian era. Sully had studied briefly with portrait painter Gilbert Stuart in Boston, and was working in New York as a studio assistant to John Trumbull when he painted Ash.
Thomas Sully, 1807 |