This painting was among the earliest collected by the Louisiana State Museum, but unfortunately there is little documentation about the lame horse or the black coachman who leads him. The coachman, whether a slave or a free person of color, reflects the southern character of the painting.

Signing the Ordinance of Secession of Louisiana is the unfinished oil sketch for a proposed life-size mural. This ambitious multi-figures composition, set inside the senate chambers of the state capitol in Baton Rouge, and commemorates the vote to secede. Perry depicted over one hundred legislators discussing and debating the issue. The painting’s...