Like many artists of the Colonial period, Williams did not make his living principally as an artist, but described himself as a “sailor, painter, novelist, musician and wanderer.” An English-born painter who immigrated to America in 1747, he is credited with popularizing the Rococo “conversation piece,” a full-length group portrait arranged in a landscape or room setting. In the painting The William Denning Family, the subjects are placed in a landscape setting through which is glimpsed a unique view of Manhattan’s lower end. The spire in the background can be identified as Christ Church on Wall Street.