Dr. John Wesley Hammond (1804-1879) was the great-nephew of Matthias Hammond, original owner of Hammond-Harwood House. He was born at a plantation named Jackson’s Chance in Anne Arundel County. He graduated from the University of Maryland in 1825 and married Sarah Pinkney in 1826. Sarah Pinkney Hammond (1804-1850) was the daughter of Jonathan Pinkney (1768-1828) and Elizabeth Monroe Pinkney. Sarah’s uncle, Ninian Pinkney, and his wife Amelia were the fourth owners of Hammond-Harwood House where they lived from 1806 to 1811. So both husband and wife had separate connections to this house through their respective uncles! The couple had five children including William Alexander Hammond, who became Surgeon General of the U.S. Army during the Civil War.
In 1832, the family moved to Somerset County, Pennsylvania, where the doctor continued to practice medicine. He was later appointed Chief Clerk for the auditor general’s office of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg in 1836. It is likely the portraits were done at this time as the painting reflects an established couple in their early 30’s. Recent scholarship has revealed the portraits to be done by Jacob Eichholtz.
Eichholtz was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1776 to prosperous German-American tavern keepers. He always had an inclination for art but was apprenticed to a coppersmith. After his apprenticeship he married and started a successful tin shop where he was able to hire workers, giving him more time to devote to painting. He started by painting tin ware and furniture, then moved onto portraits and profiles in 1808. That year he met the painter James Peale and had his half-length portrait done. In 1808 he met the artist Thomas Sully and the two became lifelong friends. Eichholtz used his children for models, a few of whom were named after famous artists like Benjamin West and Rubens, as the artist Charles Willson Peale had done with his children.
In 1823 he moved with his family to Philadelphia where he received many commissions. He was able to afford two stylish homes and fine furnishings. In 1831 he acquired an elegant brick home back in Lancaster and had a two story painting studio installed. During his final years from 1832 to 1842 he painted 175 known works, mainly in Lancaster; he also traveled to Harrisburg and Baltimore for commissions.
Eichholtz’s style in this period reflects influences from Thomas Sully, Gilbert Stuart, and the Peale family. Throughout his career he avidly read guidebooks written by English artist Sir Joshua Reynolds. He painted his subjects realistically, often with dreamlike expressions. His use of the colors red, black, and white is notable in many of his portraits. In many of his works the same red sofa can be found–as in the Hammond portraits. Also, the red paisley shawl like the one in Sarah’s portrait appears in several other of his portraits of women. In this period artists often provided their sitters with props like the red shawl. The red shawl and sofa are clues that these portraits may have been painted in his Lancaster studio.
Pennsylvania, c. 1836
Unsigned, Attributed to Jacob Eichholtz (1776-1842), American
Medium: Oil on Canvas
P82 Donated by the estate of Ann Taveau Burroughs in 2010
