Ames, Ezra

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Ezra Ames, 1768–1836, American painter, b. Framingham, Mass. Early in his life he worked as a carriage painter, miniaturist, engraver, and decorator, first in Worcester, Mass., and later in Albany, N.Y., where he settled. His portrait of Governor Clinton of New York (1818; Albany Inst. of History and Art) established his renown as a vigorously realistic portraitist. Among his many skillful likenesses are those of Gouverneur Morris (N.Y. Historical Society) and Stephen van Rensselaer (New York State Historical Association).

See monograph by T. Bolton and I. F. Cortelyou (1955).