Thomas Hicks (1823-1891)
Oil on canvas, 1864
Gift of the Partnership for New York City, Inc.
NYSM 2003.41.41

From 1809 until 1863, Pelatiah Perit was a successful New York City shipping merchant, an occupation referenced by the busy wharf scene glimpsed though the window to his right. He was president of the New York Chamber of Commerce, 1853-1863, and was a commissioner of police in 1857. In the cholera epidemic of 1832 in New York City, Perit nursed the sick and contributed large sums to the relief effort.

Thomas Hicks studied art in Philadelphia, London, Paris and Italy. In 1849 he began a successful career as a portrait painter in New York City and was elected to the National Academy in 1851. His clients included figures from the world of literature, commerce, and the arts. Here he presents Perit in a portrait d’apparat, a device in which the subject is portrayed with objects associated with the subject’s daily life, hence the wharf scene and the office context.