Oil on canvas (lined), unsigned, a full length portrait of a young boy with his hound sit beneath grape vines and a waterfall beyond, presented in a period gilt frame with composition filet.

SS 29 x 23.25 in.; DOA 38 x 32 in.

George Esten Cooke was born in St. Mary's County, Maryland in 1793. He began his career as a self-taught itinerant artist in Washington, D.C. and northern Virginia. His first formal training was under the tutelage of Charles Bird King, whom Cooke would later assist in his portraits of Native Americans.

In 1826, he and his wife left for Europe, where he made a name for himself as a copyist. Upon their return, he became best known as a portrait artist working throughout the South, primarily Virginia, Georgia, and Alabama.

$3,000 - 5,000