The Bountiful Board

DateProbably 1830-1860

MediumOil on bed ticking

Dimensions21 1/4" x 35 1/4" (54.0 cm. x 89.5 cm.).

Credit LineGift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller

Object number1936.103.1

DescriptionStill life with a green background, symmetrically draped blue curtain with a yellow fret pattern, yellow and black cords and tassels hanging from the curtain, and a brown wooden drop leaf table with red and white checked cloth. The table holds many pieces of fruit as well as china decorated with a house in a landscape. At the center of the composition, a landscape picture framed in gold hangs above the table.
Label TextThis carefully balanced still life suggests comfort, prosperity, and stability--appropriate attributes for a depiction of material comfort and plenty. To the otherwise conventional composition, including fruit, compote, and tumbler, the artist added a cup, saucer, and spoon. The china is decorated with a "house pattern," which was popular on English china during the second quarter of the 19th century. The inclusion of this china and a framed rural scene, as well as the use of bedticking as the primary support, may suggest that the artist created this painting at home using the props and materials at hand.
ProvenanceFound in Providence, RI; sold by Edith Gregor Halpert [1900-1970] of Downtown Gallery (New York, NY) to Abby Aldrich Rockefeller [1874-1948]; given to The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in 1936.