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An emblematic campaign portrait of former congressman James Irvin, who in 1847 was the Whig candidate for governor of Pennsylvania. The candidate is shown full-length, standing beneath a tree in an open field. On the ground next to him is a plough, a symbol of agriculture also featured prominently on the state's seal. In the landscape beyond Irvin are various symbols of Pennsylvania's industry and progress, including a farmer plowing his field, a mill town with smoking chimneys, a steamboat on a river, and a locomotive.
Croome's portrait is based on the type established in John F. Francis's 1838 portrait of Pennsylvania governor Joseph Ritner, likewise reproduced as a print by Newsam for P. S. Duval. Croome reverses Francis's composition and introduces a more modern industrial landscape with steamships and locomotives in the distance. Judith W. Hansen describes a version of the Ritner portrait print where the head is replaced (i.e., redrawn) with that of James Irvin, in the Pattee Library at Pennsylvania State University. |
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