A Pastoral Visit
1881
Painter, American, 1847 - 1920

In the 19th century, families often welcomed clergy into their homes, particularly when churches could not afford to offer housing.
Here, Richard Norris Brooke depicts a traditional pastoral visit. The pastor is served dinner first and later receives cloth-wrapped fruit and a cigar box holding the congregation’s weekly contribution. The banjo, an instrument with roots in African culture, suggests that the group enjoyed music after the meal.
Brooke, a white artist painting during the Jim Crow era of segregation and anti-Black racism, did not stereotype or caricature his subjects. He presents a realistic view of this family modeled by his neighbors in Warrenton, Virginia.
Brooke also maintained a studio in Washington, DC, where he taught at the Corcoran School of Art.

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 71
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 119.38 × 167.16 cm (47 × 65 13/16 in.)
framed: 144.46 × 191.14 × 10.8 cm (56 7/8 × 75 1/4 × 4 1/4 in.) -
Accession
2014.136.119
More About this Artwork

Video: Frederick Douglass and the Visual Arts in Washington, DC
Sarah Cash, associate curator, Department of American and British Paintings, National Gallery of Art, speaks with Ka’mal McClarin, museum curator, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site Collection, National Park Service, about Frederick Douglass's involvement in the visual arts.
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Purchased 7 May 1881 from the artist by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1881
Vernon Row, Washington, D.C., February 1881, no catalogue, as A Visit From the Parson.
1942
Exhibition of Paintings of Negro Subjects by White American Artists, Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 9 March - 12 April 1942, unnumbered catalogue.
1946
An Exhibition of Nineteenth Century Virginia Genre, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 17 January - 13 February 1946, no. 5.
1963
The Romantic Century, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 22 June - 9 September 1963, no catalogue.
1964
The Portrayal of the Negro in American Painting, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, 15 May - 15 July 1964, no. 58.
1976
Corcoran [The American Genius]. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 24 January - 4 April 1976, catalogue with no checklist.
1978
Children in America: A Study of Images and Attitudes, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 30 September 1978 - 27 May 1979, catalogue with no checklist.
1980
African Image, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, 17 February - 30 March 1980, no catalogue.
1981
Of Time and Place: American Figurative Art from the Corcoran Gallery, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Cincinnati Art Museum; San Diego Museum of Art; University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga; Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa; Portland Art Museum, Oregon; Des Moines Art Center; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersberg, FL, 1981-1983, no. 20.
1984
Ring the Bajar!: The Banjo in America from Folklore to Factory, MIT Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 12 April - 29 September 1984, not in catalogue.
1986
Domestic Bliss: Family Life in American Painting, 1840-1910, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers; Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum, Rochester, 1986, no. 88.
1987
Climbing Jacob's Ladder: The Rise of Black Churches in Eastern American Cities, 1740-1877, Anacostia Neighborhood Museum, Washington, D.C., 18 October 1987- 20 March 1988, catalogue with no checklist.
1990
Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710-1940, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Brooklyn Museum, 1990, unnumbered catalogue.
1993
The Century Club Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 21 July - 13 September 1993, unpublished checklist.
2003
Old Virginia: The Pursuit of a Pastoral Idea, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, 15 February - 8 June 2003, catalogue with no checklist.
The Birth of the Banjo, Katonah Museum of Art, New York, 9 November 2003 - 1 February 2004, unnumbered catalogue.
2004
Figuratively Speaking: The Human Form in American Art, 1770-1950, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 20 November 2004 - 7 August 2005, unpublished checklist.
2005
Picturing the Banjo, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Boston Athenaeum, 2005-2006, catalogue with no checklist.
2009
American Paintings from the Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 6 June-18 October 2009, unpublished checklist.
2013
American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013 - 28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.
Bibliography
1973
Williams, Harmann Warner, Jr. Mirror to the American Past: A Survey of American Genre Painting, 1750-1900. Greenwich, Connecticut, 1973: 214.
1983
Dewhurst, C. Kurt, Betty MacDowell, and Marsha MacDowell. Religious Folk Art in America: Reflections of Fath. New York, 1983: 74
Cosentino, Andrew J., and Henry H. Glassie. The Capital Image: Painters in Washington, 1800-1915. Washington, 1983: 157.
1990
Gerdts, William H. Art Across America: Two Centuries of Regional Painting 1710-1920. New York, 1990: fig. 1.351.
1991
Lowe, Richard. "To Speak and Act as Freemen: The Emergence of Black Republicans in Postbellum Virginia." Virginia Cavalcade (Autumn 1991): 53.
2002
Heartney, Eleanor, ed. A Capital Collection: Masterworks from the Corcoran Gallery of Art. London, 2002: 73.
2011
Strong, Lisa. "Richard Norris Brooke, A Pastoral Visit." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: 31, 152-153, 269-270, repro.
2021
Whitley, L. Paige. "The Reverand Jacob Ross, Georgetown's Itinerant Preacher." Washington History 33, no. 2 (Fall 2021): 40 repro., 41, cover ill.
Inscriptions
lower right: Richd. N. Brooke. 1881. / (ELEVE DE BONNAT - PARIS)
Wikidata ID
Q20188882