The Shadow of the Portrait The brush moves across the canvas in 1835, recreating a face from a previous era. Henry Willard works in the tradition of the portraitist, translating the likenesses of the past into the visual language of the nineteenth century. His hand captures the likeness of Reverend Timothy Cutler, a man who served as the third rector of Yale College. This work is not an original study of the subject, but a reproduction…
Scroll through Henry Willard's working life — artwork by artwork, chapter by chapter — from the earliest dated work to the last. Each thumbnail is pinned at its exact year on the gold axis.
The ribbon is divided into shaded bands, one per career chapter. Each chapter groups Henry Willard's works by their historical period — early training, mature practice, final years.
Every thumbnail is pinned at its precise creation year. A thin gold thread drops from the image to its exact point on the axis. Larger frames mark the artist's masterpieces by rank.
The gradient bar beneath the axis shifts colour as the dominant art movement changes over time — from the warm golds of the early period through the deeper tones of maturity. It fills progressively as you scroll.