Moses Williams (c. 1777 – c. 1825) was an African-American visual artist who was particularly well known as a maker of silhouettes. He was formerly enslaved by the artist Charles Willson Peale.
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Early life, slavery, and education
editMoses Williams was born in about 1777 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Scarborough and Lucy Peale, who were enslaved by renowned artist and museum-owner Charles Willson Peale.[1] It is believed that Williams's parents began to work for Peale sometime between 1769 and 1775.[1] In 1786, Peale manumitted Williams's parents, and Williams's father, Scarborough, changed his name to John Williams and passed along his new last name to his son.[1]
Although Williams's parents were freed, the law mandated that the nine-year-old Moses remain in Peale's service until his twenty-eighth birthday, and so Williams grew up in the Peale household among Peale's many artistic children, including Rembrandt Peale, Raphaelle Peale, Franklin Peale and Titian Ramsay Peale.[1]
Silhouette maker
editGrowing up in the Peale household, Williams was instructed in skills that would help him to work at Peale's Philadelphia Museum, including taxidermy, object display, and silhouette-making.[1] Enslaved, he was not taught the "higher art" of painting.[1]
After showing skill at silhouette-making, Williams was given a physiognotrace machine to make silhouettes, and he continued to work at Peale's museum as a freedman and a professional silhouette artist who made black-and-white paper silhouettes for visitors of the museum.[1]
Williams also created silhouettes of the Peale family, including Charles Willson Peale and his wife, Elizabeth.[2] Williams made over 8,000 silhouettes during his first year working at Peale's museum.[3] He earned between 6 and 8 cents for every silhouette he cut.[4] With the money Williams earned making silhouettes, he bought a house and married.[1]
By 1823, silhouette-cutting as a profession was in decline, and Williams had to sell his house.[1] According to the Author's Note in The Poison Place, a novel about Moses Williams, he was listed in city directories as a profile cutter until 1833.[5]
Public institutions
editWilliams' silhouettes can be found in several institutions, including the following:
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i DuBois Shaw, Gwendolyn [1]Archived 2015-08-14 at the Wayback Machine, American Philosophical Society, Retrieved 28 March 2015.
- ^ Farago, Jason. "Represent: 200 Years of African American Art review", The Guardian, Retrieved 28 March 2015.
- ^ "Jefferson Portrait by Raphaelle Peale", Monticello, Retrieved 28 March 2015.
- ^ Bellion, Wendy. "The Mechanization of Likeness in Jeffersonian America"Archived 2015-09-19 at the Wayback Machine, MIT Communications Forum, Retrieved 26 March 2015.
- ^ "Author's Note" The Poison Place: A Novel, by Mary E. Lyons, Retrieved 29 Oct 2019.
- ^ "Collections : Artist/Maker's Name: Moses Williams", Philadelphia Museum of Art, Retrieved 28 March 2015.
- ^ "Revealed Silhouette of a Young Woman" Archived 2015-04-02 at the Wayback Machine, Museum of Fine Art Houston, Retrieved 28 March 2015.
- ^ "Moses Williams, Cutter of Profiles [graphic]", Library Company of Philadelphia, Retrieved 14 August 2018.