Description:American portrait of a dark-haired attorney, wearing a black coat over a black vest and white pleated shirt seated with hands clasped and arm resting on desk, by R. B. Crafft. Naive execution and style. Several reference books of law are shelved and include
History:A label on reverse reads
Notes:Crafft is listed in Davenport's index and was known to have painted in the Delta area of the Mississippi, Kentucky and Tennessee. Oral tradition recounts a Memphis, Tennessee line of descent for this object. For a related example, see: Rumford, Beatrix T., American Folk Portraits, Paintings and Drawings from the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center (Boston, Massachusetts, 1981), p. 75-76. Also, see: Hamilton, John D., Material Culture of the American Freemasons (Lexington, Massachusetts, 1994), p. 292. Here, Crafft, in 1839, is noted as having painted
