New Crockett Portrait

[Allen Wiener]

Today I received a copy of "The Library Development Review 1993/1994" from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The cover featured this charcoal sketch of Crockett, labeled as "Davy Crockett circa 1835." It is described inside as "A charcoal of Davy Crockett, artist unknown, c. 1835. The drawing was donated to Special Collections this year by Daisy Mary Greenwell and Kenneth W. Harvey, Crockett descendants from Carmichael, California."

If this is really an 1835 Crockett portrait it looks decidedly different than the 1834 by Harding that I just posted.

I have never seen this portrait before, which looks considerably different from all other Crockett portraits.

Does anyone know anything more about it?

AW

[Jim Boylston]

I've seen this somewhere, I think it's a bad copy of the portrait attributed to Rembrandt Peale. It's more like 1828, if I'm not mistaken. A very poor likeness.
Jim

[Allen Wiener]

I thought he looked much younger here than in the 1834 Harding we saw yesterday, so 1835 did not seem accurate at all. I've heard about the Peale but never saw it. This charcoal may be comparable to the copies of the Osgood in terms of quality and accuracy.

AW

[tmdreb]

I would blame the age progression on the perception of this more heavyset depiction of the man. He appears lean in other portraits, but in this one, he looks much beefier. Increased weight does tend to make a person look older.

Phil

[Allen Wiener]

I'd like to see the Peale original, if it still exists. Given all of the other Crockett likenesses, this one just looks like a bad painting of him, or, as Jim suggests, just a bad copy of one that might have been better. Here, I think he looks younger than in the Harding; the lines, slightly thinning hair, etc., are missing in this one. His hair looks all wrong too.

Anybody know if the original is around somewhere?

AW

[Jim Boylston]

This is the portrait attributed to Peale. Note the position of the pose, the hairline, the position of the collar. Very similar, but the charcoal sketch isn't skillfully rendered. I don't think either is a good likeness of Crockett based on his appearance in the Harding or Chapman paintings. For one thing, Crockett's prominent nose is shortened in the Peale and the charcoal sketch.

[Allen Wiener]

I can see how this could have been the model for the charcoal sketch and I agree that it does not jibe with the other Crockett portraits. One thing that is fairly consistent in them is his prominent nose. In touring the NPG with Jim I got some first-hand experience in observing painters of the period who did not embellish their paintings or try to flatter their subjects; Harding, for one, was clearly a "warts and all" painter. Also, we saw a number of G.P.A. Healy's, which showed some of the same characteristics of the Bowie portrait attributed to him, leading me to believe even more strongly that the Bowie was done by Healy.

AW

[stuart]

Mmmm I have to agree. There's certainly an impression of humour in this one, but it does look quite different from the others. The eyes/eyebrows are different too.

[Allen Wiener]

There is a copy of this portrait in the booklet "Gentleman from the Cane" (not to be confused with Gary Foreman's book of the same title), which the Smithsonian/NPG put out in 1986 when there was a large Crockett exhibit at the NPG in honor of his 200th birthday.

The booklet is not entirely reliable, since they attributed the Harding portrait to John Neagle. It says that it was probably painted in the mid 1820s, after Crockett had served two terms i nthe state legislature. This, however, is an "ambrotype made in the 1850s. Unfortunately, although the original portrait survives, its condition has grreatly deteriorated ove the years. The earliest known likeness of Crockett, it was judged by one of his children to be the best ever made of him." The booklet identifies it as "Unidentified photographer, after unidentified artist," with no mention of Peale.

Crockett and some of his heirs later endorsed the Samuel Osgood portrait and displayed it at home for years before donating it the Texas capitol, where it was destroyed in a fire, along with the original Chapman. Two copies of the Osgood exist, but are so different from each other that there's no telling what the original looked like. Crockett did get permission from Osgood to use one print, to which Osgood owned the rights, in his "Tour" book, so maybe he really did think that was a good likeness. However, as I said in my article, Crockett probably saw only a sketch of the Harding and neither he nor his immediate heirs likely ever saw the final portrait, and thus could no compare it to the others.

AW

[Jim Boylston]

Allen, I think the "Gentleman from the Cane" brochure erred when assigning the Peale to the comments made by Crockett's heirs.
I'd have to refer to the notes from my article on Harding and the Crockett portraits, but I'm pretty sure they were referring to the Osgood original, not the Peale.
That booklet from NPG is beautiful but, as you state, unreliable with regards to facts.
I think I have copies of the holographs wherein the family members discuss the paintings.
Jim

[Rich Curilla]

allenw said:

I have seen a version of this somewhere, and quite some time ago, too. But I have always discounted it as either bogus or such a bad rendering that it wasn't worth my time (stupid, huh?). It wasn't this exact drawing, but it was the same image with the same idiosyncracies, and it was different than the "Peale" portrait. Wish I could figure out where I saw it. Perhaps light will dawn when I sleep tonight.

[Jim Boylston]

I think I've seen another version too, Rich. This one is clearly a bad copy of the Peale. It's difficult to see here on the forum, but the arrangement of Crockett's coat and waistcoat are nearly identical. Note especially the single button that's visible on the vest and its position in both works.
I think this charcoal sketch is of more modern vintage and is an attempt to depict Crockett circa 1835. The Peale is, of course, earlier than 1835.
Jim

[sloanrodgers]

The posted portraits just don't fit my vision of Crockett.

[Rich Curilla]

rlcgtt said:

allenw said:

I have seen a version of this somewhere, and quite some time ago, too.

Wish I had a scanner. I have in hand a postcard that I believe I got in Tennessee (Crockett Tavern perhaps) with yet another variation on the Peale portrait and the charcoal copy. This one has the same hairline, collar shape, coat and westcoat. They eyes are a bit more expressive than either of the two above, but, according to the caption, it is "a copy of an original painting of Davy Crockett by the French artist, Pierre Saint Jean, in 1828 in Nashville. The painting was made while Crockett was a member of Congress. The original painting is owned by Rev. Robert L. Whittenburg, of Washington, D.C."

Paintings were often copied by other artists before the days of photography. It was a way of making them more available, I believe, and also a challenge to an artist to recapture what the original artist did.

[Allen Wiener]

I can't find that in either the Smithsonian booklet or Gary's original edition of "Gentleman from the Cane." If you have a digital camera you could post it from that.

AW