Collections record Beta

Watercolor Painting - "View of Quebec From the Opposite Shore"

1922-06-5

Companion piece to Bacon's "View of Quebec From Point Levi." Based on ca. 1805 engraving of George Heriot's "View of the City of Quebec, taken from the North Banks of the Saint Charles." The cityscape, fort and bridge in background are faithful to the print but the landscape in the foreground with its New England country pasture, buildings and allegorical figure representations is a charming representation of the artist's own imagination. There are a series of hillocks in various shades of green rendered in dry brush technique on which are resting sheep and cows whose anatomy is distorted. On the left under a tree, behind a white clapboard house with 12 over 12 sash sits a female figure holding a quill pen in her right hand. Her right elbow rests on a large book. Her left hand, holding a garland, is outstretched towards a bee skep around which the garland winds. The artist herself is pictured at the extreme right sitting at a study table by a rose busy. A dog, resembling a wolf, is near her feet. Framed under glass.

Some discrepancy about dates, but the Heriot/Stadler engraving has to be involved somehow; Maryann's "view" is almost identical.

Maryann Bacon Whittlesey of Roxbury attended the Litchfield Female Academy in 1802. She completed two watercolor views of Quebec, as well as a needlework embroidery of a pastoral scene.

• Whittlesey, Maryann Bacon, 1787-1869

ca. 1802

14"h x 21" w

• paper
• watercolor