Portrait of a Young Man

Artist/Maker
Welfare, Christian Daniel
Place Made
Salem, North Carolina
Date Made
1825-1826
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
HOA 20 1/2; WOA 18 1/4
Accession Number
P-91
Description
A portrait of Wilhelm Ludwig Benzien, a young man with black hair, wearing a dark suit and a white cravat. Style of painting is plain, “flat”.
History
LABEL NOTES: Wilhelm Ludwig Benzien (1797-1832).
RELATED NAME: Benzien, Wilhelm Ludwig (sitter)
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
Wachovia Historical Society