Politics in an Oyster House

This small-scale cabinet picture was painted for prominent Baltimore citizen John H. B. Latrobe. Latrobe might have commissioned it in person on his Grand Tour of Europe, which took him "down the Rhine" in 1847. After shipment to New York for a brief exhibition at the American Art-Union, it was delivered to Latrobe's residence in Baltimore on May 29, 1848, with a note from William Woodville V, the artist's father, saying "Caton desires me to say to you, that if you do not like it, you must not hesitate about returning it to me, and he will, with the greatest pleasure, paint another for you." Read more...

Gift of C. Morgan Marshall, 1945