Provenance:
By descent within the Proctor/Welsh families, Utica, New York;
William J. Jenack Auctioneers, Chester, New York, Important Fine Art and Antiques Auction, January 7, 2008, Lot 171;
Skinner's, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts, American Furniture and Decorative Arts, November 8, 2010, Lot 623.

Zedekiah Belknap painted three known portraits of members of the Proctor family: the pair offered here and a portrait of a young man, possibly their son. All three descended directly within the family and were sold at public auction by William J. Jenack, Chester, New York, in 2008.

The Proctor family became one of Utica’s great benefactors by the turn of the 20th century, with donations from political and financial magnate Thomas Redfield (1844-1920) and his wife, Maria Watson Williams Proctor, establishing the city’s magnificent park system. The grandparents of Thomas Redfield, Thomas (1776-1867), likely his namesake, and Abigail Atwood Searles Proctor (1774-1851) were a prominent early American family from Windsor County, Vermont. Their son, Moody Stickney Proctor (1807-1867), possibly the young man depicted in the third Belknap painting of the Proctors, was a successful merchant, dividing his time between Vermont and Boston by 1850. His son, Thomas Redfield, was also born in Vermont but relocated to Utica by 1880.