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Crayon Portrait probably 1848 or 1849

The only known mention of this likeness occurs in a letter from Mrs. Annie L. Richmond to Maria Clemm, dated simply “Sunday Eve June 15” but written probably in 1856. The body of the letter deals chiefly with Mrs. Richmond's sorrow over the apparent theft of her daguerreotype of Poe (fig. 20), but the text contains an oblique reference to a second Poe likeness, a crayon portrait: “Muddie I have something sad to tell you — someone has stolen my Daguereotype [sic] of him. ... true I have the crayon but that is not nearly so good.”(6) Whether the crayon drawing was a portrait from life or merely a derivative copy of Mrs. Richmond's lost daguerreotype is unknown. Mrs. Richmond's relative disinterest in the crayon suggests it may have been a copy, but this cannot be stated with any certainty since no trace of the image survives. Poe scholars have occasionally speculated that before her death in 1898, Mrs. Richmond destroyed much of her Poe memorabilia — possibly including the lost crayon portrait. The portrait's attributed dates are based on the period of Poe's association with Mrs. Richmond.