Joseph Goodhue Chandler (1813-1884) painted seven members of the Lamson family of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. This portrait of the family’s head-of-household, Nathaniel Lamson, was painted in the early 1840s when Mr. Lamson was in his thirties, and an owner of the Lamson and Goodnow Cutlery Company. The artist frequently signed, dated, and identified both the name and the age of the sitter on the back of his canvas.