Artist Information
Artist
Henry InmanAttribution
Attributed toDate made
circa 1830Notes
The portrait is unsigned and undated, but attributed to Henry Inman in a 1993 appraisal by Al Schrager. Schrager suggests a made/created date of circa 1840, but the catalog record for this work in the Smithsonian Institution Catalog of American Portraits gives the date as circa 1835-1845 (but differently gives the date for the second of the pair, of Asahel Finch, as circa 1830-1840).
In the 1993 appraisal report, Schrager writes that "[i]f we knew more of the locale in which Mr. and Mrs. Finch live, we could draw further conclusions," and notes that Inman was active in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland ca. 1830s-1840s. The Finches lived in New York where they were married in 1830, after which they moved to Michigan, and later Milwaukee in 1839. Therefore, possibly the portraits are actually ca. 1830, since 1830 was the only time the Finches lived near Inman. Also, marriage would be a suitable occasion to commission portraits of the new couple, which may further point to a date of 1830.