Gideon Lee (1778-1841)

Samuel L. Waldo (1783-1861)
William Jewett (1792-1874)
Oil on wood panel, c1833
Gift of the Partnership for New York City, Inc.
NYSM 2003.41.138

Self-educated and self-made, Massachusetts-born Gideon Lee rose from apprentice tanner and shoemaker to become the prosperous founder of Gideon Lee and Company, Manhattan leather merchants. Lee also enjoyed an active political life. He was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1822 and to Congress as a Jacksonian Democrat in 1835. As the last appointed mayor of New York City, Lee served in that capacity in 1833-34. He is buried in Geneva, NY.

Waldo and Jewett formed a partnership in New York City in 1817, receiving portrait commissions from prominent individuals for almost four decades. The reverse of the wood panel on which Lee’s portrait is painted is stamped “Waldo and Jewett / 1833 / New York,” and he holds in his left hand a document which appears to be the Annual Report [of the] Mayor [of] New [York,] 1833, the year in which he was appointed to that office.