PORTRAIT OF A BULL BY CARL FREIGAU (OHIO, B. 1849)

PORTRAIT OF A BULL BY CARL FREIGAU (OHIO, B. 1849)
Ink on paper, signed lower right and dated October 1876. A small but regal portrait of a prize bull, titled below "29TH DUKE OF GOODNESS at 16 Months. Bred by G.M. Bedford, Ky. Property of David Selsor, London, Madison Co., O., Got by the 4th Duke of Geneva (30958) out of the 20th Dutchess of Goodness." Matted and in a period frame. 9" high, 11" wide (overall). Carl Freigau was born in Germany and immigrated to the US in 1849, settling in Dayton. He was primarily a livestock portraitist, working throughout Ohio. He advertised in 1881, "Mr. Carle Freigau, of Dayton, O., has been around lately making pen portraits of blooded stock..." David Selsor was the youngest of at least eight children born in Greenbrier County, VA (now WV), on March 30, 1812, to Johannes Seltzer and Mary Andrick. The family moved to Ohio when he was still very young. As a teenager, David is said to have begun trading stock, and it was through this occupation that he attained his reputation and wealth, as well as the title of "Cattle King" in Ohio. He appears to have married only once, at age 53, to Rebecca Jane "Jennie" Foster (1852-1929). After their marriage in 1875, he and Jennie had two daughters. The 1870 census records list his real estate value at $90,000, his personal estate value at nearly $20,000, and by the time of his death twelve years later in 1882, his biography in an 1883 The History of Madison County, Ohio says he was well-respected beyond the state for the quality of his cattle and owned nearly three thousand acres of land. He and Jennie are buried together in the Kirkwood Cemetery in Madison County, Ohio. Provenance: From the collection of the late Dr. James Dawson, sold to benefit the Dr. James Dawson MD Women's Clinic in Uganda
Condition: Even toning, some light staining, not removed from the frame for examination.