Farmscape

Date1845

Possibly by Augustus Riehl (active ca. 1845)

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Union County

MediumWatercolor, ink, and graphite on wove paper

DimensionsPrimary Support: 3 3/4 x 5 7/8in. (9.5 x 14.9cm) and Framed: 5 1/4 x 7 1/8 x 3/4in.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1993.305.6

DescriptionA depiction of several farm buildings set on a rise of ground, the ground and surrounding trees painted a bluish-green. A 2 1/2-story, L-, or T-shaped building at far left appears to be the family's house. A large barn appears near center. A third large building appears in the distance to the right of the barn. All buildings have red roofs. The wing on the first building is bluish white; the gable end of the first building is greenish-ochre; the gable end of the barn is bluish-white; the top half of the long wall of the barn is ochre; the distant building walls bear no watercolor. Centered above the farmscape are a name and a date, written in fraktur-style lettering and bracketed top and bottom by floral sprays.

The 15/16-inch stained, splayed frame with half-round sight edge is a modern replacement.

Label TextA former owner believes this little scene depicts a farm off the Furnace Road running out of Winfield (Union County), Pennsylvania, an area still occupied by Riehl family members today. Whether Augustus Riehl was the artist, the farm owner, or both is unknown.

Pennsylvania Germans are better known for illuminated manuscripts and fanciful, stylized renderings of birds and flowers derived from a traditional folk idiom. This tidy, typical farm in its rural setting is at once more personal and more unusual. The large size of the barn and its proximity to the house underline the importance of farming and animal husbandry in most German-speaking communities in America.
InscribedInscribed at center top in dark brown ink in fraktur-style lettering is "Augustus Riehl. 1845."
On the dust cover on the back, written in brown ink in script over the righthand frame member, is "near Winfield".
ProvenanceFound in a used book store in the Kauffman Library, Sunbury, Pa.; purchased by Mary George Sowers; to her husband's first cousin, Jack K. Hetrick, who was AARFAM's source.