Joseph Leman

Stylistically, the piece exemplifies Eichholtz’s charming oval portrait series, emphasizing likeness and modest ornamentation.

The portrait of Joseph Leman is an oil painting on a wooden panel, executed in 1808 by Jacob Eichholtz. The work is a small oval portrait, a format Eichholtz frequently used for family likenesses. The paint handling is smooth and detailed, typical of early‑American portraiture, capturing the sitter’s features with careful modeling and a restrained palette.

The support is a solid wood panel, providing a stable ground for the oil medium. Stylistically, the piece exemplifies Eichholtz’s charming oval portrait series, emphasizing likeness and modest ornamentation.

Joseph Leman was painted by Jacob Eichholtz in 1808 in oil on wood. The work descended within the Leman family of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, passing by descent to Adelia Leman (1857–1947), the artist's grandniece. According to Helen W. Henderson's 1943 brochure for the Philadelphia Art Alliance exhibition of Eichholtz's work, Adelia Leman retained a collection of family souvenirs at her home outside Lancaster, including a series of small oval portraits on wood.

The painting was likely acquired from Adelia Leman's estate in 1948 by Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch of New York and Cambridge, Maryland. The Garbisches gifted it to the National Gallery of Art in 1953.

The portrait of Joseph Leman is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. It was acquired by the museum in 1953 as a gift from Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, who had likely purchased it in 1948 from the estate of Adelia Leman, the artist's grandniece. Prior to entering the Garbisch collection, the work remained within the Leman family in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where it was part of a group of family portraits owned by Adelia Leman. The painting was notably included in the 1943 exhibition Jacob Eichholtz, 1776-1842, American Artist at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, where four works from Adelia Leman's collection were procured for display.

Joseph Leman, an oil-on-wood portrait painted by Jacob Eichholtz in 1808, entered the National Gallery of Art through the 1953 Garbisch gift after descending in the Leman family of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The work was highlighted in the 1943 Philadelphia Art Alliance exhibition Jacob Eichholtz, 1776‑1842, American Artist, where curator Helen W. Henderson noted the artist’s appealing series of small oval family portraits, of which this painting is an example. Its inclusion in that show and subsequent acquisition by a major museum situate Eichholtz within the early‑national American portrait tradition and have contributed to modest scholarly attention to his regional practice.

Jacob Eichholtz created this oil portrait, titled Joseph Leman, around 1808. Executed on a wood panel, the work depicts a young boy. This piece offers insight into early 19th-century American portraiture, reflecting the artist's developing style and the common practice of commissioning likenesses of children during the period.