Collections record Beta

Watercolor Painting - A Sailor Boy Relating the Story of his Shipwreck to a Cottage Family

1980-33-1

The family is gathered before the doorway of their thatched cottage, the open door of which is at left. The rocky shore with the shipwreck impaled upon a cliff can be glimpsed in the background between the cottage and a large oak tree to the right. The group includes, from left to right, grandmother seated in a rustic slat back chair in front of a crude table on which sits a small kitten; father in a blue smock and black hat and holding a pipe, standing in the doorway; mother with a small girl clinging to her skirts and wearing a striped fichu and aporn with a muslin cap on her curly hair. Central figures are a young boy and the sailor boy who looks much the worse for wear and not at all animated in the telling of his story. He wears a much bedraggled cabin boy's uniform of dark coat and light trousers. Two gray chickens are also present in the foreground but seem disinterested in the event. Framed - probably original - under glass.

Lucy Sheldon attended the Litchfield Female Academy from 1801-1803. She mentions in her diary painting this watercolor, Dec. 31, 1801. See 1980-33-2, for another watercolor. Lucy was born in Litchfield, the daughter of Dr. Daniel and Huldah (Stone) Sheldon. In 1832, she married Theron Beach, a merchant and President of the Phoenix Bank. See 1939-04-1 for a portrait of Mrs. Theron Beach (Lucy Sheldon), c.1870. See also the archive's LFA collection for an 1802 album,1802 copy book and three music books.

• Beach, Lucy Sheldon, 1788-1889

1802

10 3/8" x 14 1/2"

• watercolor
• paper
• ink