Painting 21x17 or 24x20 with frame.  Small hole at left bottom, paint loss, etc.  marked "James H

Cafferty 1864"  For restoration.

James Cafferty, a portrait, landscape and genre painter and book illustrator, was prominent in New York City academic circles. By 1939, he was working in the city as a sign painter, and in 1841 he was enrolled in the National Academy of Design in the Antique class. In 1843, he was beginning several decades of participation in the Academy annual exhibition. Until the 1850s, most of his entries were landscapes, but during the last decade of his life, he focused on still life, many of them with fish and game subjects. From 1857 to 1858, he served on the National Academy Council.In 1843, he was elected vice-president of the New York Sketch Club. To support his painting during the mid 19th century, he sold art supplies. Also the American Art Union purchased many of his landscape paintings for their annual lottery sales exhibition. However, when he died, it was apparent that he was not financially successful as the National Academy Council circulated the message that the family needed fifty dollars towards funeral expenses.Little is known of the youth of James Cafferty, except that he was from a large family in Albany and that the father was a tailor. He wrote of early art association with Charles Loring Elliott, which leads to the assumption that he took lessons from Elliott.