Paquito D'Rivera & Brenda Feliciano: 1955 Ernest Crichlow Child Portrait
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GUEST:
I grew up in Brooklyn. My parents were in the Civil Rights Movement, so a lot of people in the movement came to the house, and one of them was this painter. Daddy got this painting from Ernie Crichlow, who I met as a kid. I am not sure who this young, beautiful child is, but Daddy left me this, so this means a lot. If you can give me some insight on this, I would love it.
APPRAISER:
Ernest Crichlow was from Brooklyn himself. He was from an immigrant family, he was the second of nine children. His parents were from Barbados.
GUEST:
Hm.
APPRAISER:
And, um, they lived next door to, to an Italian family, and they would babysit for each other. So he grew up with that kind of feeling around him, in terms of people taking care of each other.
GUEST:
That's right.
APPRAISER:
But his work overall has always centered around civil rights. She's in profile, and you can see she's kind of turning. As opposed to a portrait painting, which is a frontal...
GUEST:
Frontal.
APPRAISER:
...head-on portrait painting that seems static...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
...here you, you have some movement captured. It's like a moment in time.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
She almost seems surprised in a way. And what, what this does is, in addition to adding dynamism to the painting, it also gives and imparts a little bit of air of mystery. Crichlow himself often said that he was very interested in capturing the motion of the sitter.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
He was a master portrait painter.
GUEST:
And she evokes to me a young girl that's in her Sunday best wearing her, her ribbon. And that's how I have looked at her. Sort of like when I would go to church, you wore a little ribbon, and that's what she looks like.
APPRAISER:
Exactly. You took the words right out of my mouth. But also, she doesn't look necessarily super-happy, right?
GUEST:
Apprehensive, yes.
APPRAISER:
Apprehensive. Something's going on.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
It's signed and dated, "Ernest Crichlow, 1955." So, we don't know who she is, but I think more than anything, she's almost like a symbol of all other children during this difficult, very difficult time.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
He was not one of those African American artists who shied away from the subject matter.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
A lot of his works had to deal very bluntly with oppression, overt racism. If I was going to put this painting at auction today, I would put a very conservative auction estimate on it of $3,000 to $5,000. And part of that is also because it's on the smaller side.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
There are a couple of condition issues, as you can see here. Just some scratches.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
But those are easily taken care of.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm. Look at that. Wow. It's beautiful.
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