Jonas Welch Holman

Please note the estimate has changed to match the print catalogue.

Dr. Daniel Lovette;
Freeman's, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, American Furniture, Folk & Decorative Arts, November 13, 2014, sale 1506, lot 488. 

Jonas Holman be­gan his ca­reer as an evan­gel­ist, tra­vel­ing ov­er a large por­tion of Maine.  worked as a portrait painter, writer, doctor, and preacher, supporting himself through these vocations as he traveled among Baptist congregations. In 1831, he moved to Bos­ton, or­gan­ized the first Free Will Bap­tist Church in that ci­ty, and served as its pas­tor about 15 years. Dur­ing that time, he stu­died me­di­cine at Har­vard Un­i­ver­si­ty.  In 1853, Hol­man joined the Bap­tist de­no­mi­na­tion, and be­came pas­tor of the First Church in Nor­wich, Con­nec­ti­cut, and lat­er re­ceived a call to the Bloom­ing­dale Bap­tist Church (Cen­tral Bap­tist Church) in New York Ci­ty. After se­ver­al years at Bloom­ing­dale, he re­signed and or­gan­ized the Mt. Ol­iv­et Church in New York Cit­y. He was sub­se­quent­ly pas­tor of Bap­tist church­es in Stan­ford­ville, New York; Rock­port and North Ha­ven, Maine; Frank­lin, Mas­sa­chu­setts, and North Ston­ing­ton, Con­nec­ti­cut. Over a half a cen­tu­ry of min­is­try, Hol­man preached over 5,000 ser­mons. At one time he pub­lished a re­li­gious jour­nal called The Re­vi­val­ist, and fre­quent­ly con­trib­ut­ed to pub­li­ca­tions.  A pair of related portrait are in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago (acc. nos. 1946.392 and .393) (see Judith A. Barter and Monica Obniski, For Kith and Kin: The Folk Art Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago, (Chicago, IL: Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2012), no. 26).  The sitters are noted to be Josiah Sears Nickerson (1798-1866) and Abigail Gould Nickerson (1801-1874) of Chatham, Barnstable County, Massachusetts.