- Titles Study of Tenant House (Let Us Now Praise Famous Men) (Title)
- Artist William Christenberry, American, 1936 - 2016
- Medium black ink with oil paint on mulberry paper
- Dimensions sheet (irregular): 21 1/16 × 29 in. (53.5 × 73.7 cm) mat: 40 × 30 1/16 in. (101.6 × 76.4 cm)
- Credit Line Museum purchase, 2017.42
- Work Type painting
- Classification Drawings
- Signature Signed and dated in black ink, recto, lower right: CHRISTENBERRY / 61
- Marks None
- Inscription Recto, lower left, in black ink: IN FRONT OF HOUSE / IT STANDS JUST SUFFICIENTLY SHORT OF VERTICAL THAT EVERY LEAF OR SHINGLE, AT ITS EDGES, AND OF / EVERY EDGE OF HORIZONTAL PLANK (BLOCKED, AT EACH CENTER, WITH SQUARED VERTICALS) IS A MOST BLACK AND CUTTING / INK: AND EVERY SURFACE STRUCK BY LIGHT IS THUS: SUCH AN INTENSITY AND SPLENDOR OF SILVER IN THE SILVER LIGHT, IT / SEEMS TO BURN, AND BURNS AND BLINDS INTO THE EYES ALMOST AS SNOW . . . . MOST NAÏVE, MOST MASSIVE SYMMETRY AND SIMPLENESS. ENOUGH LINES, ENOUGH OFF-TRUE, THAT THIS SYMMETRY IS STRONGLY YET MOST SUBTLY SPRAINED / AGAINST ITS CENTERS, INTO SOMETHING MORE POWERFUL THAN EITHER FULL SYMMETRY OR DELIBERATE BREAKING AND / BALANCING OF 'MONOTONIES' CAN HOPE TO BE. A LOOK OF BEING MOST EARNESTLY HAND-MADE, AS A CHILD'S DRAWING, A THING / CREATED OUT OF NEED, LOVE, PATIENCE, AND STRAINED SKILL IN THE INNOCENCE OF A RACE. / FROM LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN [underlined] BY JAMES AGEE AND WALKER EVANS
- Provenance Bob Clark, Birmingham, AL; with Bryant Estate Sale Services LLC, Vestavia, AL; purchased by the Birmingham Museum of Art, 2017