Jane Van Arsdale Scudder,

ca. 1822–28

Following nearly a century of anonymity, Micah Williams was identified during the 1950s as the artist responsible for a large group of pastel portraits from the New Jersey area. His striking rendering of Jane Van Arsdale Scudder (1774–1855) was likely produced between 1822 and 1828, midway through a twenty-year career as an itinerant artist that began after financial misfortunes ended his original occupation in the silverplate industry. Jane Van Arsdale married Elias Scudder, a wealthy landowner, sometime before 1806 and by 1831 had settled with him in Princeton. Williams’s portrayal in the fragile medium of pastel is remarkable for its excellent state of preservation, as well as for the sitter’s elaborate attire. The distinctive turban, double ruffled collar, and colorful embroidered ribbon Scudder wears suggest both wealth and an apparent fashion consciousness, while the leather-bound book she holds indicates not only literacy but the leisure time to indulge it.