Armatt, Jane Caroline (1798-1856)

Armatt, Jane Caroline (1798-1856)

Inman, Henry (attributed). Alternate attribution: Jacob Eichholtz.

1820 (circa)

Born in the autumn of 1798, the younger of two daughters, Jane Caroline Armat was raised in the newly built family home of Loudon in Germantown, Philadelphia. By the age of 11, Jane and her sister Sara were left solely in the care of their grandparents following the death of their mother and father within just three years of each other.

At the age of 21, in 1819, Jane married her cousin William Armatt with whom she had two daughters. It was in the early years of their marriage that the artist Henry Inman is believed to have painted this portrait of Jane.

Inman, who had established himself as one of the prominent portraitists in New York City by 1829, was also credited with the first successful attempt of genre painting by an American-born artist. His somewhat Romanticised style is perhaps what first appealed to Jane when commissioning this portrait, however it is thought that Jane Caroline Armatt and Henry Inman were good friends too. Their friendship lasted long after the passing of William Armatt in 1822 as Inman is also attributed to painting two later portraits of Jane and her second husband, James Skerrett, an Athenaeum shareholder, after their marriage in 1825.

25" x 30"

Oil on canvas; gilt frame

Gift of Major and Mrs. Coryndon Luxmoore.

General Collection, Museum Collection, The Athenaeum of Philadelphia

2017.01.01

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