Oil painting on composition board; Landscape scene of a dirt road flanked by a green pasture with a plow in the foreground; trees on horizon; blue sky with white and gray voluminous clouds. Set in flat gilt frame with one recessed inner frame and applied exterior bead.
paintings (visual works)
landscapes (representations)
oil paint (paint)
illustration board
Painting
"Artful Stories": This painting has long graced the South Berwick, Maine, bedroom of writer Sarah Orne Jewett (18491909) alongside other items related to her large circle of female friends. Among these was Sarah Wyman Whitman, who painted this scene in Italys Dolomite Mountains. The abandoned plough on which the painting is focused may have appealed to Jewett, whose writing celebrated the earnest labor of Maine farmers.
Whitman studied with leading painters and eventually became one of the countrys most influential book designers. She was the lead designer for the Boston publisher Houghton Mifflin Company and designed virtually all the covers of Jewetts books.
"A.A. Childs & Co./Boston" (Printed label)
Original To Sarah Orne Jewett House (South Berwick, Me.),
Whitman, Sarah Wyman, 1842-1904 (Artist)
Cortina dAmpezzo, Itally
16 1/2 x 20 1/4 (HxW) (inches)
Gift of Elizabeth L.P. Richardson
1966.399
Massachusetts (United States)
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