Christina Hege

Artist/Maker
Welfare, Christian Daniel
Place Made
Salem North Carolina United States of America
Date Made
1828
Medium
oil on canvas –poplar
Dimensions
HOA 25 3/4″; WOA 21 3/4″; DOA 1 1/4″
Accession Number
4646.3
Description
Portrait of woman; 3/4 length portrait of woman angled slightly toward proper right. Background is dark on viewer’s right with open window overlooking landscape with a tree on viewer’s left (only about half the tree is in the frame).

Woman has gray eyes and dark hair pulled back and secured at top with a large tortoise shell comb; a curl of hair is fastened just above each ear with a dark band which extends on each side toward the comb. Woman is wearing white empire waist dress with blue bows near the top of each sleeve; dress has white lace collar fastened at center with small brooch in the shape of a flower.

Reproduction frame made by Black Dog Gallery 03/2012.

History
Christina Hege (born 1802) and her sister Catherine both got married in 1828 and it is likely that these portraits were painted at the time of their marriages. Catherine married artist Daniel Welfare, and Christina married hatmaker adam Butner. The portrait descended in the Hege family.

RELATED OBJECTS: Acc. 4646.2 Portrait of Catharine Hege; Acc. 4646.1 Georg Hege’s Taufshein; 4646.4 Portrait of Adam Butner.

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
Purchase