Collections record Beta

Watercolor - View of the Litchfield Academy

CA1900-06-4

Straight-on view of the Litchfield Female Academy from the east, showing gable end front with two pilasters each side of door, fan-light and cupola with iron cross at top. Fence runs across the front of the building. Framed under glass with white mat.

There is some confusion about the provenance of this watercolor. Earlier accession records indicate that it is actually a copy of an earlier work, completed c.1830 by Joseph Napoleon Gimbrede (b.1820; see 1927-21-2 for a drawing by him). The accession record also attributes the piece to Emily Hart, a music teacher at the Litchfield Female Academy listed in the 1830 LFA catalog. Hart's original watercolor of the Academy building is in the collection of Old Sturbridge Village. CA1900-06-4 was thought to be a second copy of that watercolor. Upon inspection, this piece appears to be a copy by Emily Noyes Vanderpoel, who is known to have copied Hart's picture in 1898. Another copy of the watercolor, visibly older and closer to Hart's original but with unknown provenance, is also in the collection of the Litchfield Historical Society and is now believed to be Hart's second copy.

• Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes, 1842-1939

c.1898

6" x 8", board 11" x 13"

• watercolor
• cardboard
• paper