Boston Public Library
Allan Rohan Crite Collection
Detail from:
St. Luke the Evangelist
Allan Rohan Crite (1910-2007), illustrator, painter, and printmaker, was born in New Jersey but lived most of his life in Boston. His family moved to the South End when Crite was one year old and, with his mother's encouragement, he grew up attending art classes for children at the Museum of Fine Arts and Children's Art Centre at United South End Settlements. Crite graduated from English High School in 1929 and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 1936. Also in 1936, Crite first showed his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. During the Depression, Crite was one of the few Black artists employed by the Federal Arts Project.
In the 1940s, Crite began work as a draftsman and illustrator at the Boston Naval Shipyard. He worked there for the next three decades, the job supporting his artistic career. For a brief period after the Second World War, Crite was laid off from the shipyard and worked mainly as a liturgical artist producing artworks for churches and religious organizations, including some large murals. Not all of this work survives. Crite returned to the shipyard after about a year and a half and worked there until his retirement in 1976.
Using a representational style, Crite focused on showing members of the African American community in Boston as regular, everyday people. Crite felt that art of African Americans too often depicted people as stereotypes -- jazzmen from Harlem or sharecroppers from the deep south. Crite wanted to show Black people just as ordinary human beings, which led him to drawing street scenes of people running errands, riding on buses and subways, or going to church.
As a devout Episcopalian, many of Crite's works are religious in nature. Many of his brilliantly colored gouache paintings and studies place Biblical figures such as Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and choirs of angels in familiar Boston locations.
After marrying in 1993, Crite and his wife Jackie Cox-Crite transformed their home into a museum showcasing Crite's work. Many of the works in the Special Collections of Boston Public Library, including many preparatory sketches, were mounted by Crite and Cox-Crite for display in this museum. Some sketches were mounted together with reference photos to give an overview of Crite's artistic process, from research through development to a finished work of art. Cox-Crite also founded the Allan Rohan Crite Research Institute after Crite's 2007 death to document, honor, and protect Crite's legacy.
Critical funding to support long-term preservation of and enhanced public access to Boston Public Library collections, including this one, was provided by the Associates of the Boston Public Library.
In the 1940s, Crite began work as a draftsman and illustrator at the Boston Naval Shipyard. He worked there for the next three decades, the job supporting his artistic career. For a brief period after the Second World War, Crite was laid off from the shipyard and worked mainly as a liturgical artist producing artworks for churches and religious organizations, including some large murals. Not all of this work survives. Crite returned to the shipyard after about a year and a half and worked there until his retirement in 1976.
Using a representational style, Crite focused on showing members of the African American community in Boston as regular, everyday people. Crite felt that art of African Americans too often depicted people as stereotypes -- jazzmen from Harlem or sharecroppers from the deep south. Crite wanted to show Black people just as ordinary human beings, which led him to drawing street scenes of people running errands, riding on buses and subways, or going to church.
As a devout Episcopalian, many of Crite's works are religious in nature. Many of his brilliantly colored gouache paintings and studies place Biblical figures such as Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and choirs of angels in familiar Boston locations.
After marrying in 1993, Crite and his wife Jackie Cox-Crite transformed their home into a museum showcasing Crite's work. Many of the works in the Special Collections of Boston Public Library, including many preparatory sketches, were mounted by Crite and Cox-Crite for display in this museum. Some sketches were mounted together with reference photos to give an overview of Crite's artistic process, from research through development to a finished work of art. Cox-Crite also founded the Allan Rohan Crite Research Institute after Crite's 2007 death to document, honor, and protect Crite's legacy.
Critical funding to support long-term preservation of and enhanced public access to Boston Public Library collections, including this one, was provided by the Associates of the Boston Public Library.