Gerard, Ebenezer

Introduction:

Primarily a portrait painter, profile miniaturist, and artist of some merit, Norfolk-born EBENEZER GERARD (ca.1784-1826) was also a drawing master and cut or painted silhouettes. According to newsprint, circa 1813 his right arm became partially paralysed, forcing him when working thereafter to support his wrist with his left hand. Located in Norwich, Scotland, London, Liverpool and Manchester, for the last 6 months of his life Gerard worked with the loose collective of itinerant profilists of the 'Percival' gallery.

Gerard's extant silhouettes are undated and scarce. Working back from an obituary notice citing his age, he is first recorded aged 22 in the ABERDEEN PRESS and JOURNAL 17th May 1806 as a Portrait Painter and Drawing Master appointed by its governors to Gordon's Hospital, a school for orphaned boys. Likely he was already resident in the town long enough for the institution to evaluate his worth and evaluating the commercial opportunities of Scotland's northernmost towns, Gerard decided, by and large, to remain Aberdeen-based until early 1812.

In May 1807, promoting his 'Teaching-Room' in the same newspaper, he stated 'scholars would be taught with the strictest attention to their proficiency'. Also mentioned were '...a considerable number of Portraits and other subjects, the production of his own pencil... [which he intended exhibiting]...in his Painting-Room'.

By August 1808, both rooms may have been brimful with his 'productions', as an ABERDEEN PRESS and JOURNAL columnist related 'Mr Gerard, Portrait Painter of this city, has been remarkably successful taking LIKENESSES by means of the Patent Machine, which he afterwards fills up with appropriate colours. He has taken a great number of Likenesses at Peterhead, Fraserburgh and Banff, and had the honour of His Grace the Duke of Gordon sitting to him. Mr.Gerard is now at Inverness, where he has been equally successful'.

In February 1811, as evidenced by an advertisment in the ABERDEEN PRESS and JOURNAL, after offering ' Coloured Profiles at Five Shillings to Half-a-Guinea Each' Gerard stated he had returned after '...visiting several towns in the South'  between June 1809 and January 1811, though  whether he meant England or the Scottish-lowlands is unknown. What is known is that local woman Elizabeth Will (N/K) bore his first offspring Mary Ann (ca.1811-1887) in Aberdeen, then son Ebenezer Jnr (1812-1865) who was baptised there in February 1812.

Shortly thereafter, no doubt hoping to establish himself as a successful metropolitan portrait painter, Gerard decamped to London. A commission speedily followed, as the National Portrait Gallery houses a print, published May 1812, of Gerard's 3/4 length painting of the Minister of the Scots Church, London Wall. Equally speedy, following on from Ebenezer Jnr's 4th February baptism in Aberdeen, was the birth and baptism in London 8 months later, of son Henry James to Norwich-born Ann Gooch (1789-1834). Seemingly unwed, she nevertheless adopted Gerard's name, though where and when they became acquainted remains a mystery.

According to a biographical sketch in the LIVERPOOL MERCURY 25th March 1825, Gerard was 'fast rising in his profession...[when ca.1813]...a fever left him quite incapable of holding a brush, and in that helpless state he remained a twelvemonth, when after repeated trials, by grasping the wrist of his right hand, he was able to paint likenesses in watercolour'. The incapacity, by early 1815 at the latest, doubtless precipitated a return to his presumed home town of Norwich.

Likely always combining portrait and profile painting to maximise profitability, confirmation that he did so in Norwich is evidenced by his sole NORFOLK CHRONICLE advertisment 29th August 1817 which stated 'E Gerard Portrait Painter and Drawing Master...' was removing from Davey Place to 9 Gun Lane. Profiles in black were offered from 1 to 2 shillings 6 pence. Coloured profiles were 5 to 10 shillings 6 pence with miniatures 1 to 3 guineas. Potential pupils could view a '...great quantity of specimens and striking likenesses of welll known characters'.

Regarding his silhouettes, an early work painted on card, framed in oval fruitwood, bearing Gerard's first trade-label, was executed with an odd, probably unique, style of bustline termination, which may be an aid to attributing unsigned profiles. With black bodycolour, neckcloth and shirt highlighted in Chinese white, the male sitter's grey-shadowed bustline rises sharply to a shoulder bereft of an arm. A second work, illustrated by McKechnie, of a university undergraduate, is cut, sparingly but skilfully bronze highlighted, and set in a papier-mâché frame bearing his second trade-label. The label contains verse composed for profilist Edward Foster (1762-1865) in 1811, after which it was seemingly plagiarised by Gerard. 

Three well-handled watercolour portraits patently painted in the town, are housed in the Norwich Castle Museum. Two are of named Norwich Theatre actors, costumed for roles: one is dated 1815. The third is an unsettling portrait of a Norwich Alderman costumed for the Corporation. A fourth watercolour, of a seated blind beggar, very much in the style of John Church Dempsey's 'street people' is held in the  British Museum's collection. Established to showcase East Anglian talent, the Norwich Society of Artists' 12th exhibition in 1816 included a Gerard portrait miniature. The NORFOLK CHRONICLE  17th August 1816, criticising another miniature, concluded it '...wanted the bold and vigorous handling of Gerard'. And a Gerard portrait miniature sold at Bonhams (London) 28th October 2009.

In July 1815 Ann and Ebenezer Gerard 'Limner' baptised their son William Sinclair (1815-1866)  in Norwich, however, their final two offspring would be born in Liverpool. As Britain's 2nd busiest sea-port with a burgeoning population, Liverpool appeared fertile ground for portrait commissions.

Sequential 1821-1825 trade directories evidence a family abode in Trowbridge St and various studios in Lord St, one of the town's main commercial hubs. Recently sourced, a coloured profile miniature bearing a 3rd trade-label with probably his initial studio address at 47 Lord St, offers likenesses '...in a variety of different manners'. Options were coloured profiles, miniatures, single or group portraits and portraits 'the size of life' which may indicate works in oil on canvas.

In 1820, Gerard was located in Manchester, as another profilist is recorded in a July issue of the MANCHESTER MERCURY  having '...taken rooms lately occupied by Mr. Gerard'. Seemingly commuting between both conurbations, he appears again in Liverpool and Manchester newsprint in 1825. By then, though baptisms are unrecorded, his wife had borne Elizabeth (ca 1821-1884) and Samuel (ca 1825-after 1860). Almost certainly in straitened circumstances, the LIVERPOOL MERCURY 25th March stated that with '...half-a-dozen children to provide for ', Gerard intended publishing a book.

As an 'opportunity of doing a kindness to a deserving artist', Gerard's 'Letters in Rhyme', containing whimsical poetry, puns and his own stone-etched engravings, was published by subscription in April 1825. By June, he was engaged with the Percival gallery (fl 1823-1830), a loose collective of itinerant profilists.

Between June-August in Manchester 'Messrs Percival and Gerard...[with unnamed artists]...offered an Exact Likeness, frame and glass included, for a shilling, and superior portraits and miniatures on canvas and ivory'. By year's end, the gallery was in Glasgow, Gerard was ill, and seeking to replace him, Percival advertised in the 7th January 1826 issue of the CALEDONIAN MERCURY for 'Miniature Painters and  young men proficient in Drawing...'. Six days later, Gerard was dead.

The LIVERPOOL MERCURY 3rd February 1826 recorded his death 'on Friday 13th ult. at Glasgow, Mr. Ebenezer Gerard, Portrait Painter, formerly of this town, aged 42'. His place of interment is unknown.

Wife Ann Gerard and family returned to Norwich, where 8 years later she contracted cholera. Dying aged 45 on 18th October 1834, she was buried the next day. The NORWICH MERCURY of 1st November stated '...the widow of the late Mr Gerard, formerly an artist of this City...' having died suddenly, her orphans were left '...with no protector or relations to render assistance' and an appeal was raised '...hoping to place the children out, to learn a Business to earn their lives'.

REVISED : 21 April 2026 (Brian Wellings)