Oil on board with the original frame
15.75 ” x 13.75″
Willard was born in Sturbridge, Massachusetts but moved to Boston and began painting there in 1841 at the age of twenty-two. He became part of the thriving Boston art market, exhibiting his portraits at the Boston Atheneum in 1853 and 1856 and helped to found the Massachusetts Academy of Fine Arts. He returned to Sturbridge in 1867 and taught and painted portraits there for the remainder of his life. A larger and more finished self-portrait is in the collection of the Worcester Art Museum.
