"King Bird"

James Bard (1815-1897), New York, dated "1855"

oil on canvas laid down to Masonite

29 ½” x 52”

Signed, dated and inscribed lower right “Picture Drawn & Painted by James Bard, 1855./ 162 Perry St. New York/ August… 12”

Provenance: John Lee Pratt; Mr. and Mrs. William E. Wiltshire, III; Estate of Joan Harmon Van Metre

Exhibition: Richmond, Virginia, Virginia Museum, and traveling, “American Folk Painting: Selections from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. William E. Wiltshire III,” 29 November 1977 – June 1979 (cat. no. 46); New York, Museum of American Folk Art, “Celebrate the Hudson,” 28 October – 2 November 1980.

Literature: Peluso, Jr., The Bard Brothers: Painting America Under Steam and Sail (1997), p. 168.