Aaron Smock

Periodca. 1819

MediumPastel on paper

Dimensions20.25 × 24 in. (51.4 × 61 cm)

ClassificationsPortraits

Credit LineBequest of Sarena V. Roome [Mrs. J. William], 1957

Object number1982.416

DescriptionThree-quarter length portrait of an adult male facing left, with grayish blue eyes, brown hair parted in the center and brushed upward above forehead, and long brown sideburns. He wears a black coat, a white shirt with ruffles, a white stock, and a white vest with a standup collar. The subject holds a leather bound book in his left hand, which is supported by his right hand. The background is a mottled grayish blue. Mounted on wood stretchers lined with two separate sheets of newspaper. One sheet appears to post-date 25 July 1781, and the other after 1817. Other pieces of newspaper as well as yellow tissue paper were folded and used as a shims. One portion of newspaper removed was inscribed in ink "Aaron Smock" in the upper right corner of the New Brunswick Advertiser dated 16 September 1819.
Curatorial RemarksThe portraits of Aaron Smock and his wife Sarah with Baby Elenor are two of the most poignant of the surviving images by Micah Williams. Between early 1819 and 1824, Micah Williams produced a group of at least twenty-eight related family portraits of Smocks, Schencks, Conovers, Smalleys, and Vanderveers, all of whom were related either through birth or marriage. Association records indicate that Mrs. Roome placed the portraits on long term loan to the museum on 16 October 1935. They were turned into gifts by bequest in 1957.NotesAaron Smock (1783 - 1835), nicknamed “Orrie,” served as a Lieutenant during the War of 1812 and was stationed at Sandy Hook Fort. Aaron married Sarah Conover Schenck (1786 - 1825) on 24 November 1804. The couple had ten children including Garret, Sarah Ann, Jane Schenck, Daniel Polhemus, Elizabeth, William Henry, Elenor (the infant depicted in the portrait), Aaron A., John A., and Eleanor Schenck. Aaron was progressive and worked actively in stock breeding and horticulture. He developed the “Smock” peach and the “Orange Pippin” apple; he bred sheep and helped to develop a lucrative spring lamb market with New York City butchers; and he was one of the first farmers in the area to use greensand marl on his fields as fertilizer. Aaron and Sarah Smock were members of the Old Brick Dutch Reformed Church in Freehold, now Marlboro. Smock served as an elder, a deacon, and a member of the church choir for many years. Aaron died unexpectedly in 1835 at the age of fifty-two. His death was mentioned in the diary of Reverend Garret Schanck, pastor of the Old Brick Church, where Aaron had been such a fixture for so many years. The portraits of Aaron and his wife and baby girl were included in Aaron’s estate inventory, described as “2 family likenesses,” and were given a value of six dollars.

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