Collections record Beta

Oil Painting - "View of Old Congregational Church"

2019-105-2

Oil on canvas painting of a landscape scene with buildings, showing the Congregational Church in Litchfield, Connecticut. Dirt path runs horizontally at foreground, with four tall trees lining the path. Multiple other paths run towards the middle ground. One of them leads to steps in front of a tall, white church building with front portico supported by fluted columns. Steeple rising above portico with clock face underneath a bell tower. Church building has green shutters on all visible windows. To the right of the church are two houses, painted white with green shutters. Both are two-storied with front facing gables, attic windows, and single visible chimneys. The right-most house has a visible ell on the right side. Multiple trees visible in the background. Three figures are depicted in the scene: a man on the portico, a woman at the base of the church steps, and a second man standing under the trees to the right. Painting completed in cold, colorful style dominated by green, white, and red hues. Most elements are outlined in a dark line of blue or green. The composition itself is outlined on the canvas in blue, with bare canvas visible around the edge within the frame. Canvas is framed in a modern wood frame with gilt finish and incised detail; details are picked out in a thin white wash.

Paper label attached to stretcher on reverse, with text "Old Congregational Church/Litchfield, Conn./Study for over mantel in Kingsbury/house, Litchfield (now Ludlow/Bull's)/not for sale except with consent/of Bull family/Figures supposed to be Julius Deming/his daughter Lucretia, her 'suitor'." The over-mantel mentioned by Deming (1987-01-0) is dated 1917, when the home was owned by the Kingsburys. The note must have been added after 1936, when the house was purchased by Ludlow Bull, as he is mentioned in the text.

ARTIST: Adelaide Deming was an artist and educator working largely in New York, although she kept a residence in Litchfield. She studied at the Art Students League and with artists like William Merritt Chase. She taught at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn from 1902 to 1910. Deming was a member of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, the Paint and Clay Club of New Haven, the Kent Art Association, the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, and the American Watercolor Society. PAINTING: This view of Litchfield in the early nineteenth century was a favorite of Adelaide Deming's. This canvas served as a study for an over-mantel painting completed in the parlor of the Julius Deming House on North Street. Later occupants included the Kingsburys and Ludlow Bull, both of whom are mentioned in Deming's note. Both the over-mantel (1987-01-0) and a smaller, finished painting on canvas (2012-46-1) are in the Society's collection. While the painting was executed around 1917, it does not depict Litchfield as it appeared at that time. The artist altered the placement of the buildings to suit her creative vision.

• Deming, Adelaide, 1864-1956

c.1917

Overall length 31.875", width 26", depth 2.5"

• oil
• canvas
• wood