Portrait of Susan B. Mayer

Wealthy Lancaster merchant Christopher Bartholomew Mayer (1756 – 1815) and his wife Susannah Burkhart Mayer (1761 – 1848) were enthusiastic patrons of portrait artist Jacob Eichholtz, commissioning a total of eight portraits of themselves, one set for each of their eight children. Although he began as a metalworker and prospered at this trade, Eichholtz made a deliberate decision in 1808 to become a painter, a transition from artisan to artist, and transformed himself into one of the nation’s most productive portrait painters. Largely self-taught, he was influenced by artists such as Thomas Sully and Joshua Reynolds. He worked primarily in Lancaster and exhibited periodically in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.