Collections Database

Description:
Framed watercolor on paper titled "La Grange - Residence of La Fayette" and inscribed "L.M. Goodwin Ashfield 1830" for LeMira Goodwin (1809-1834),at the right below the image, which is in the original painted and smoke-decorated frame. Two handwritten cards came with the drawing. The older note reads: "Painted by my Aunt in 1830. My mother was named Lucy La Fayette the 14 Dec. after the General landed in Nov. 1824. Nellie M. Blake supposed to have made their paints of vegetables 'or something'." The second card dated 7/24/1978 reads: "This watercolor was painted by LeMira Goodwin daugher of Anson and Temperance Goodwin. She was born August 30, 1809 and died November 3, 1834. Painted 1830 in Ashfield, Mass. Lucy La Fayette Goodwin was her sister and according to Ashfield Town Records was born December 14, 1823." LeMira Goodwin was the daughter of farmer, distiller, and wooden splint-maker Anson Goodwin (1781-1871) and Temperance (Rogers) Goodwin (1780-1868) of Ashfield, Massachusetts. It is possible that LeMira, like her younger sister, Lucy Lafayette, attended Ashfield’s Sanderson Academy. LeMira Goodwin based her watercolor on a lithograph based on the 1826 landscape painting "La Grange, South Western View," one of four views of La Grange done by Boston artist Alvan Fisher (1792-1863). La Grange was the family seat of Marie Adrienne Françoise de Noailles (1759-1807), the wife of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834), and where Lafayette moved into in 1799 and attracted international attention for his innovative agricultural practices. After leading American troops during the American Revolution, Lafayette had returned to France in 1782, where he participated in the French Revolution, drafting France's "Declaration of the Rights of Man", modeled on the "Declaration of Independence." He was imprisoned outside France in 1792 at the height of the "reign of terror", and released in 1797 when he returned to France. In 1824, President Monroe invited him to visit the US; he embarked on a 13 month tour of all 24 states, receiving a hero's welcome at each stop. Alvan Fisher evidently met General Lafayette in 1824 when Lafayette stopped at Dedham during his US tour. Fisher was granted permission to complete paintings of Chateau La Grange, Lafayette's estate outside Paris. His four views of La Grange were then drawn on lithographic stones in France by the noted lithographer, Isadore Deroy, and brought back for printing on one of the first lithographic presses used in the United States. Portfolios of these prints were sold a souvenirs building on the popularity of General Lafayette.

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2000.66

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.