Description:
Watercolor drawing of flowers and leaves in pinks, greens and brown on off-white, wove paper and inscribed "Arabella S. Sheldon" in brown ink on the reverse, and the handwritten inscription in pencil "By Arabella S. Sheldon / 1812-1874" in the lower left corner of the backing paper (see data file). Arabella S. Sheldon (1812-1874) was the daughter of Seth Sheldon (1787-1860) and Caroline Stebbins Sheldon (1789-1865) of Deerfield, who lived in the Sheldon House until her marriage to Henry Wells of Shelburne, Massachusetts in 1843. Arabella attended Deerfield Academy for a term in 1826 at age 14. She probably drew and painted this picture, reminiscent of floral designs embroidered on household textiles such as bed hangings, at a young age. PVMA has a shirred rug depicting her girlhood home in Deerfield that she made in 1842, a year before she married Henry Wells and moved to Shelburne, which demonstrated her continued development of needle skills and an artistic eye well into adulthood.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+95.022 |
