Collections record Beta

Watercolor Painting - Mourning Picture

1943-01-0

There are six figures dressed in deep mourning. Two stand at right of single obelisk to left and others flank double obelisk to right. In the right and left foreground are rows fo five stiff pine trees and over the tombstones are weeping willows. A river or pond with houses on the far shore divides the picture. The sky is rendered with blue wash at the top shading to pink above the horizon. Over this are pale suggestions of clouds in transparent white. Stone on the left inscrived "In memory of a sister/Achsah Catlin/obt. April 24 1810 A E 17 years/Fair was the flower and soft the vernal sky/Elate with hope we deemed no tempest nigh/When low a whirlwind's tempestuous gust/Laid all its beauties withering/in the dust" Left of center stone "In Memory of a Mother/Elizabeth Catlin/obt. Aug. 25, 1810 A.E. 45 years/Ere long your bodies must be found/like mind beneath the silent ground/Weep not for me refrain your tears/I must be here till Christ appears" Right of center stone "In memory of/Truman Catlin/Lost at sea Nov. /A.E. 34 years/No marble stone ( )/No weeping ( )/ No Turning ( ) as from/Can form a ( ) his/ ( ) there" Frame is a wood cove molding with moulded liner applied rope molding insert and leaf decoration at intervals on outer edge. The wood has been treated with gesso and gold leaf applied over all, excepting the moulded liner

Completed by Elizabeth Catlin Cooke, a student at the Litchfield Female Academy from 1812-1815. Eight other mourning pictures of similar style are known to exist. It is probable that an LFA drawing instructor helped in painting the faces of the figures.

• Cooke, Elizabeth Catlin, 1799-1893

ca. 1811-1815

26" x 28" frame: 33 3/4" x 35"

• silk
• watercolor