Artwork
Jeremiah Platt
Jeremiah Platt is an oil painting by the Rococo painting artist John Mare. It dates from 1767 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
A man sits in a curved-back wooden chair in a dark coat and white stockings, his face serious, almost tired. He is Jeremiah Platt, a New York merchant; the splat-back chair was a costly piece that signaled his success. John Mare, oil on canvas, 1767.
Subject & Meaning
Jeremiah Platt is portrayed as a young man in a 1767 oil-on-canvas portrait by John Mare, presently in The American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Jeremiah Platt is portrayed as a young man in a 1767 oil-on-canvas portrait by John Mare, presently in The American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The composition includes a splat-back chair, a detail that signals a domestic setting typical of elite sitters in colonial America. This chair, together with conventional portrait conventions, suggests the sitter's social standing.
As a painted likeness, the work functions both as a record of individual identity and as an embodiment of mid-eighteenth-century notions of refinement and familial legacy.
Technique & Style
The work is an oil painting on canvas, measuring about 123.2 cm by 97.8 cm, dated 1767, and housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's American Wing. It portrays a man seated in a splat-back chair, rendered with characteristic eighteenth-century portrait conventions. The technique involves layered oil paint applied to a canvas support, producing a smooth, naturalistic surface, with a restrained palette, chiaroscuro modeling, and attention to fabric detail.
History & Provenance
The portrait Jeremiah Platt by John Mare is dated 1767 based on internal records and the work's inscription. It is painted in oil on canvas and depicts a man seated in a splat-back chair. The work is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where it is inventoried under accession number 67.21, having entered the collection in 1967.
Its provenance prior to the museum's acquisition is not detailed in the cited sources, and the work has not been recorded in major traveling exhibitions according to available records.
Overview
John Mare Jr. painted this oil on canvas portrait of Jeremiah Platt in 1767. The work captures the New York merchant seated in a distinctive splat-back chair, reflecting the Rococo style prevalent at the time. Mare, a native New Yorker, was active as both an artist and a public figure. This piece offers a glimpse into colonial American society and the visual representation of its prominent citizens.
Artist & collection
Artist
John Mare, Jr. (born New York City, 1739; died Edenton, North Carolina between June, 1802 and April, 1803) was an American painter, businessman, and public figure.
