New Hampshire Farm Scene

DateProbably 1845-1875

OriginAmerica, New Hampshire, Antrim (possibly)

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 24 5/8 x 31 1/4" (62.6 cm x 79.4cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1967.102.1

DescriptionRural landscape scene. Beneath a pale sky, ochre hillsides dotted with full-leafed trees surround a loose cluster of buildings. A T-shaped, white, two-and-a-half-story house sits atop a slight hill in the center of the composition and is situated off a road running at a slight diagonal through the foreground. A cross in a mound of stones marks a grave in the bow of the road in the right foreground. Tucked into the ell of the building is a roofed doorway. Adjoined to this building is an open woodshed, and in it stands a man in a white shirt with his back turned. Almost directly above him is another man who appears to be standing on the shed roof looking into a center, second-floor window. Behind the woodshed is a yellow outbuilding. Behind the main white house is a small valley through which a river pools into a still, wide pond with a stream coming off of its left end, disappearing underneath a small plank bridge in the lower left corner. At center right is a white outbuilding, and across the pond on a somewhat higher hill is an ochre building, partially shrouded by trees, with a central red chimney. On the hillside below this house sloping back down to the water is a black horse, and nearby to the right is a man dressed in a bright white shirt under a dark vest and trousers. He is leaning against a split rail fence.
Modern 3-inch splayed mahogany frame with raised molded edges and gold liner.

Label TextThe former owner believed this painting represented a scene in Antrim, New Hampshire, but verification of the locale has not been made. The date 1845 on the barn at right probably does not refer to the date of the picture but only to the year of the building's construction; many barns in New York and New England are so inscribed. It is not known why one of the men in the picture is standing on a shed roof and peering into a second-story window of the adjacent house. Note the curious entry tucked into the ell of the house and the grave in the right foreground, marked by a cross in a mound of stones.
InscribedPainted above the door of the barn at far right is "1845." Writing on the sign on the distant building is illegible.
Markings.
ProvenanceMorgan Burns, Henniker, New Hampshire