After all, David Poe Sr.'s daughter, Elizabeth, married Henry Herring. It would make perfect sense that Elizabeth received an early portrait of her father, after his death in 1816. She may even have received a portrait of her half-brother, David Poe, Jr., Poe's father, following his mysterious disappearance, or death, in 1810. Sadly, there are no known portraits of any of these men to compare this painting against. Still, the possibilities are intriguing.

Another exciting possibility is that this could be a painting of Poe's brother, William Henry Leonard Poe; who died in 1831, at approximately 24 years old. Reports on Henry's appearance tell of a thin, rather sickly looking male who resembled Poe, but who was nowhere near as handsome. The man in the painting doesn't appear to be older than 24-30 years old. As William Henry Poe was at least as welcome, perhaps more so, than his brother Edgar, during the 1820s, with his Herring and Poe Baltimore cousins, it is very likely that they could have treasured a portrait of this particular 'ill-starred' cousin, Poe's brother, Henry.

The sitter may also be one of Neilson Poe's brothers: George Poe (1807-89) or James Mosher (1812-85). The grandfather of all these Poe males was George Poe, Sr., the brother of Edgar Poe's own grandfather, David Poe. Sr. Neilson Poe himself had five sons, and indeed, this could be a portrait of any of them who survived into manhood.

Even if this painting were overhauled by experts and a fairly precise date assigned to it, there still doesn't appear to be any extant corroboration to support who the subject of the painting really is. This is very frustrating, as with this whole treasure trove of Poeana. At this point we are 'stabbing in the dark' for 'suspects.' It is only the provenance of the painting itself, one of the few actual paintings that have been treasured by the Poe/Herring families for at least 200 years, that makes the sitter of such great interest to the Poe community at large. That this painting survived for two centuries within the Poe family is a strong indicator that this was a very important sitter, indeed.

Perhaps, if we are lucky a Poe family member reading this web-site may be able to identify this 'Poe Mystery Man.'