A Pastoral Visit by Richard Norris Brooke Tissue Paper

Richard Norris Brooke - A Pastoral Visit, 1881. ichard Norris Brooke (1847-1920) was an American painter known especially for his genre scenes depicting African-American subjects. A Pastoral Visit, the most celebrated of Richard Norris Brooke's genre scenes, or views of everyday life, depicts a family welcoming their elderly pastor to Sunday dinner - a frequent occurrence in both black and white rural parishes that could not afford parsonages. According to tradition, the pastor is served first and, following the meal, he will be presented with both the cigar box containing the congregation’s weekly contribution (duly protected by the family patriarch) and the cloth-wrapped fruit at right. The banjo, prominently placed at the center of the composition symbolizing its importance in African American culture, may indicate an after-dinner musical interlude.