[2] Like Christopher, he was a graduate of Columbian College; at his commencement in 1826 he read a poem of his own composition, "Cranch", suggesting that he had already determined on his future career.
[3] William Dunlap claimed that he studied with Chester Harding, Charles Bird King, and Thomas Sully, though he provided no details; this would be unsurprising, however, as all three artists had been active in Washington before 1829, in which year Cranch first advertised his services as a portraitist.
[4] He spent four years there, mainly in Florence and Venice, becoming friends with Hiram Powers and associating with visiting Americans, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson.
That year he showed three works in the annual exhibition; these were a portrait of a child, a study of an old man "painted at Rome", and The Valley of the Shadow of Death.
This last, based on the 23rd Psalm and meant as an inspirational work, received scant notice, and the one reviewer that did pay it mind wrote derisively of its composition.
[3] He was also active, along with William Wilson Corcoran and George Peter Alexander Healy, in attempts to set up a national gallery and school of art in Washington.