Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

A family gathers around a dying patriarch in a simple rural home. They are unaware that outside, above the remote countryside, a spectacular host of angels descends from the celestial realm to receive him. John McCrady, the son of a rural southern minister, often explored religious themes in his art. In a letter to the Saint Louis Art Museum, he remembered that "Some thirty years ago I was sketching near Oxford, Mississippi, and when I found this house . . . I met and talked with an old man . . . sitting on the porch . . . After the Museum bought this picture . . . I returned to this very pleasant place, he was gone, and so was his house . . . Even though I never knew his name I was well acquainted with his conversation, and I feel today that something like what is depicted in the painting, was very likely what really happened."