Southern School, late 19th c

Item's Description

oil on board, inscribed Georg A. Dickey / 1894 en verso of frame, 7 in. x 13 in., in a period gilt frame.
Note: The contemporaneous ink inscription of 1894 on this frame evidently refers to Georg A. Dickey of Wayne County, Tennessee (born c. 1875, age 55 in 1930) who is listed in the 1930 U.S. Census as a sawmill worker. Since he is apparently not recorded as a painter, his name may have been inscribed on this work as its owner (or as the owner of the farm represented). By 1930 he and his wife had a family of two daughters, two sons and two teenage male relatives, as well as a boarder; so even in an earlier year, they might have owned a property such as this, which they might have asked an itinerant artist to depict. The image generically recalls the work of William Aiken Walker (1838-1921), but with many variations of style and handling.