RARE WILLIAM AIKEN WALKER (AMERICAN, 1839-1921) PORTRAIT TRIPTYCH, oil on board, each a fine full-length depiction with excellent detail of a cotton picker in the field, two men flanking a woman at center, and signed at lower edge, each bearing period pencil inscription verso, probably in the artist's hand, regarding price and size, the verso inscription for the portrait of the man on the left reads "4 x 8 / each $3.00 / pair $5.00 / man". Housed in a period, possibly original, gilt frame with molded-composition ornament retaining period printed framer's label applied verso for "P. KAUFFMAN / FINE ARTS / BROADWAY / NEW YORK". Fourth quarter 19th/early 20th century. Each 4" x 8" object, 13 3/4" x 19 1/4" OA.
Catalogue Note: Born in Charleston, South Carolina, William Aiken Walker (1839-1921) was a prolific painter of souvenir portraits that depicted working class subjects, mostly poor African-Americans, in the American South during Reconstruction. Primarily self-taught, Walker served as a cartographer for the Confederacy during the Civil War, and began a pattern of itineracy after the war's conclusion that included stops in Charleston, the mountains of North Carolina, and New Orleans. Extremely popular in his lifetime, Walker painted two large Louisiana landscapes that were reproduced as lithographs by Currier & Ives. 

The important collection of H. Marshall Goodman Jr., Richmond, VA.
Purchased at a benefit auction for St. Margaret's School, Tappahannock, VA, donated by a local family.

Each in excellent overall visual condition. Center example with small area of inpainting to figure's apron at waist. Left example with small area of inpainting below figure's elbow. Frame with minor wear.