Ezra Ames. Ezra Ames was a popular portrait painter in Albany, New York during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
More than 700 portraits have been attributed to him. He was born in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1768.
He moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1790, and married Zipporah Wood in 1794. Some time later he moved to Albany, New York where he painted a number of prominent people, including early portraits of Governor George Clinton and Alexander Hamilton.
It is not known whether Ames was formally trained or not, but his work had a popular appeal. In addition to portraits and landscapes, Ames' surviving accounts books indicated he painted miniatures, carriages, fire buckets, fences, mirror frames, and furniture.
Ames painted a number of still lifes, landscapes, and history paintings, and was skilled at engraving. The Chautauqan Magazine describes his importance in this way; was the most noted portraitist in the state, outside New York city. The sure and fluent ease of his brush, his keen characterization, his pure, fresh coloring, are all remarkable for this early period. His portrait of Governor George Clinton, exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1812, won him wide notice; but he did delightful work some years earlier, and many even finer canvases are scattered through the middle states, in private hands. During his career Ames painted many members of the New York State
More than 700 portraits have been attributed to him. He was born in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1768.
He moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1790, and married Zipporah Wood in 1794. Some time later he moved to Albany, New York where he painted a number of prominent people, including early portraits of Governor George Clinton and Alexander Hamilton.
It is not known whether Ames was formally trained or not, but his work had a popular appeal. In addition to portraits and landscapes, Ames' surviving accounts books indicated he painted miniatures, carriages, fire buckets, fences, mirror frames, and furniture.
Ames painted a number of still lifes, landscapes, and history paintings, and was skilled at engraving. The Chautauqan Magazine describes his importance in this way; was the most noted portraitist in the state, outside New York city. The sure and fluent ease of his brush, his keen characterization, his pure, fresh coloring, are all remarkable for this early period. His portrait of Governor George Clinton, exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1812, won him wide notice; but he did delightful work some years earlier, and many even finer canvases are scattered through the middle states, in private hands. During his career Ames painted many members of the New York State
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