Allan Rohan Crite

Allan Rohan Crite (1910-2007) was raised in Boston’s South End and studied at the Latin School, English High School, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Harvard University.  He won the Boston Museum School Scholarship and the Boit Prize, both in 1935.  In 1936, his work was exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art.  During the 1930s and 40s, he created a series of “neighborhood paintings” and prints that documented his predominantly African American Roxbury community, but he is best known for his religious illustrations. (see video interview with the artist)

During the 1930s, Crite, a devout Episcopalian, began to concentrate on religious themes.  He painted murals in Episcopal parishes in several states, produced pen and ink drawings and lithographs, and he authored and illustrated three religious books:  Were You There?; All Glory; and Three Spirituals from Earth to Heaven.  Due to his sense of racial pride, all of the figures in Crite’s paintings and illustrations are represented as African Americans.  He often set religious scenes in urban environments.

The Crite prints were hand printed by Sue Ann Evans on Japanese Kitakata paper and mounted on hand-made sheets from the Dieu Donne Papermill.