Collections record Beta

Hand-screen

ca1890-02-70

Uncut, watercolor on paper design for a hand-screen or fire screen. Central oval showing three figures, presumably a mother, father, and child. Figures are dressed in classical attire and set again background of gray and white clouds or mountains, with a sky of green at the top. Above the oval is a swag of intricate floral shapes, largely in greens, with a lyre and painter's palette at the center; below the oval is a second swag of floral designs, largely in blues, and forming a chevron shape at the center. To left of central oval, two unfinished pencil sketches of faces, in profile; likely a later addition. Faint pencil line around outside of design, likely indicating where it was to be cut.

Mary Leonard Marsh was a student at Litchfield Female Academy in 1813-1814. The accession record indicates this screen design was given to her friend, Lucy Sheldon Beach, who attended the Academy a decade earlier. It is also possible that the screen was made by Mary's older sister, Anne Leonard Holme, who attended the school in 1804.

• Marsh, Mary Leonard, 1795-1817

1813-1814

8" x 9.75"

• ink
• watercolor
• paper