RARE c. 1895 CRAYON PORTRAIT PHOTO AFRICAN AMERICAN BLACK FAMILY COMPOSITE IMAGE

[PHOTOGRAPHY, CRAYON PORTRAITS, AFRICAN-AMERICAN ART]. On offer here is an ORIGINAL, COMPOSITE, CRAYON PORTRAIT PHOTO OF A GROUP OF 24 AFRICAN AMERICANS. This group of people who are most likely family given the wide range of ages of those shown.

There appears to be a child perhaps as young as 18 months and several men and women who are about in their middle ages. Curiously, some of these images are from crayon portraits so they were utilized for this composite.

Additionally, several we count about 4? Images are not done in the crayon fashion which leads us to the conclusion the composite was made up of the available images. We deeply wish we knew who this family is, but sadly there is no clue as to who this might be beyond the fact it was found among the effects of noted artist, author, educator and art gallery director / owner Samella Lewis. Several of these people look as though they could be of Creole descent (or from Louisiana where she was born), but it's merely speculation.

Suffice it to say we've never seen a composite photograph of 24 African Americans. We've seen as many as 4 in an image but this is far and away the most we've seen.

Given the dress, hairstyles and the use range of the crayon format, we believe this image was created between about 1895 - 1905. The image measures 9.5 in x 21.5 in within the frame and save for a light stain on the left edge affecting 3 of the 24 subjects, the image is in very good condition. During our research phase, we could find no analog for this in institutional holdings or on offer in commerce.

We feel this is a museum quality piece deserving of more research and discussion. Formerly from the effects of noted African American art dealer and scholar, Samella Lewis. As best we can ascertain, this and other items were in storage for roughly 40 years.