Artist/Maker

Welfare, Christian Daniel

Place Made

Date Made

1835

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

HOA 26 1/2; WOA 22 1/2 (Frame dimensions)

Accession Number

P-320

Description

A portrait of Isaac Boner and his wife Dorothea Elizabeth. Elizabeth has a hat in her hands and is sitting in a painted chair to the right of her husband who is sitting on an upholstered sofa. Another hat sits below the arm of the sofa.

History

Isaac Boner was born in Rowan County, North Carolina December 17, 1776 and died August 3, 1858. He was a hatter by trade. Dorothea Elizabeth Boner (m.n. Meyer) was born in Salem August 16, 1775 and died October 5, 1854.

RELATED NAME: Boner, Isaac; Boner, Elizabeth

Artist Biography

ARTIST BIO: Christian Daniel Welfare (Wohlfahrt) was born June 12, 1796 in Salem, North Carolina. He died August 30, 1841 in Salem. His parents were Jacob Wohlfahrt and Anna Elizabeth Schneider Wohlfahrt. Daniel married Catharina Hege in 1828, together they had three children.

“Welfare was briefly apprenticed to a joiner. He later became a teacher in the Boys School and during his lifetime served the community in many ways: sick-nurse of the Single Brother, tavern keeper, member of the Aufsher Collegium, member of the Salem Light Infantry Company, delegate from the Salem Congregation to the Synod in Herrnhut in 1836.” (Bivins & Welshimer, p.96) Daniel Welfare was also the first portrait and landscape artist in Salem. He studied painting in Philadelphia under Thomas Sully. In 1825, he exhibited at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts.

Credit Line

Wachovia Historical Society Collection