Jacob Eichholtz was an early American painter, known primarily for his portraits in the Romantic Victorian tradition.
Background
Jacob Eichholtz was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, son of Leonard and Catharine Eichholtz.
His grandfather, John Jacob Eichholtz, a native of Bischoffsheim, Bavaria, was one of the earliest settlers of Lancaster, where he was assistant burgess in 1750-52. His wife, Anna Catharine Reichert, established the Bull’s Head Tavern in Lancaster in 1765. She was succeeded in the proprietorship by her eldest son, Leonard, father of Jacob.
Education
Like his brothers and sisters, the latter received a plain English education.
Career
He divided his time between art and coppersmithing until his portraits assured him a reasonable living. Having acquired a local reputation, upon the suggestion of his friend, Mr. Barton, Eichholtz visited in Boston the celebrated Gilbert Stuart, who welcomed, advised, and encouraged him. He thereupon sought wider opportunity in Philadelphia and, after ten strenuous years in that city, gained sufficient recognition to return to his native town with a fair income. In Philadelphia he had as neighbor and warm personal friend the famous John Sartain, who engraved many of his portraits. Most of Eichholtz’s painting was done in Philadelphia, but he did some in Baltimore, during several sojourns of a few weeks at a time, and some in Lancaster. In 1818 he painted the portraits of George Graefif and his wife, and about 1822 a portrait of their daughter, Maria. Other notable portraits are those of Chief Justice John Bannister Gibson, considered an example of the artist’s best portraiture, now in the possession of the Law Association of Philadelphia; Collonel James Gibson, painted in 1829 for the State House at Dover at the request of the Delaware legislature.
Achievements
Politics
His reading and classical study inspired his decoration for the hose carriage of the Union Fire Company of Lancaster, an allegorical representation of water.
Personality
His father did not welcome his early evidence of artistic talent; nevertheless, a friendly sign-painter was engaged to teach the lad rudimentary drawing. His teacher’s untimely death brought about Jacob’s apprenticeship to a coppersmith, but did not end his dreams of painting. With a bootjack for a palette and any available substitute for a brush he continued his rude efforts.
Connections
After completing his apprenticeship, he assumed family responsibilities by his marriage to Catharine, daughter of John Hatz, a widow with two children by whom he had four of his own.
In 1817 his first wife died, and a few years later he married again. Catharine Trissler became his second wife and eventually bore him nine children.