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William Jennys was an early American painter and portraitist. He studied under his father, Richard Jennys, and was active mostly in Connecticut. He traveled all over New England painting portraits for nearly 16 years and was fairly prolific and successful. Today, there are over 100 paintings of Jennys in record, with nearly 100 more attributed to him.

Little is known about Jennys life, however, he left behind a oeuvre of beautifully executed portraits. He was skilled in painting textures, particularly on fabric, and brought a beautiful luminosity to crushed velvets, draperies, silk and hair. Most of his portraits depicted his sitters from the waist up, but occasionally he would do full-length paintings of his subjects. Sometime Jennys would create realistic likenesses of his sitters that were matched by few in his lifetime; other times, his portraits would appear flat and somewhat dull.

Perhaps this dramatic change in style was a sign of a maturing artist. It is likely that as he grew as an artist, his style and techniques improved, creating more visually pleasing portraits. One will notice that in the bulk of his portraits, Jenny used a technique of encircling his sitters in a black and gold, cameo like background. One of the reasons that Jennys likely did not paint his sitters from the waist down was to avoid painting their hands and arms; a difficult task for most artists, particularly for self-taught or naïve artists. However, one may not that if Jennys did attempt to paint the arms and hands, they had a somewhat chubby and awkward look, and the sitter was almost always holding something in their hand.

Today although many of his paintings and portraits survive, Jennys life still remains a mystery to art historians. This, however, opens up a world of possibilities for art collectors and owners. Could he have traveled to England to perfect his craft? Did he paint still life and genre scenes as well? These details are unknown, and could mean that a great many number of his paintings are in existence virtually anywhere. Still wondering about a family heirloom portrait hanging in your home? Contact us…it could be by William Jennys.