The exhibition, People of the Collection, features portraits in the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center’s Collection, including this one painted by Friedrich Julius Georg Dury (1817–1894), who was a well-regarded Bavarian-American portrait artist working in both oil and pastel. He was born and educated in Würzburg, Bavaria, and Munich, where he began his career as an artist. In 1849, Dury emigrated to the United States.

After the Civil War, the Tennessee state legislature commissioned several portraits from Dury, including the late President Abraham Lincoln and his successor Andrew Johnson. An 1870 review in a Nashville newspaper said Dury was an artist “who has caught his inspiration from the old masters. Dury’s work is on display in the U.S. White House, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Tennessee State Museum. Dury typically did not sign his paintings.

The featured painting is of Charles Mitchell, Jr., who was a Nashville musician. Charles Mitchell, Jr., George Dury, Oil painting, ca. 1870 – 1879. Donated to the Customs House Museum’s Collection by Cheekwood Estate & Gardens.