Richard Crump (American, Circa 1805-1853)

Pair of Portraits: Possibly Richard and Rebecca Crump
1838-1839
oil on canvas
each signed Rich'd Crump and dated to verso
29 3/4 x 25 inches.

The gentleman holds a copy of the Louisville Journal dated December 16, 1838, and points with his finger to text in the newspaper reading Richard Crump / Portrait Painter.

Little is currently known about the life and career of the Kentucky artist Richard Crump. Genealogical records from Bedford County, Virginia identify a Richard Crump (one of several) born in 1804, while noted art historian and scholar of southern portraiture Estill Curtis Pennington gives Crump’s life dates as circa 1816 – after 1852 in his discussion of Crump’s portrait of The Morris Family (circa 1840) in the collection of the Speed Museum (see Kentucky: The Master Painters from the Frontier Era to the Great Depression, Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2008). However, it is well documented that Crump established himself as a portrait artist in Louisville as early as 1836, when his studio was listed on the east side of 3rd Street between Main and Market. His residence was listed at that time as on 1st Street between Green and Walnut. Crump moved several times over the next decade but continued to be listed as an artist and portrait painter in Louisville until at least 1852. Following the death of his first wife, Rebecca, from tuberculosis in 1841, Crump seems to have remarried, as he is recorded in the census of 1850 as living in Louisville’s Ward 8 with a wife, Elizabeth, and six children. The 1860 census lists Elizabeth and three non-adult children, but not Crump himself.

Property from a Kentucky Collector

This lot is located in Cincinnati.