Description:
Painting of George Washington's Tomb, adapted from the original steel engraving by W.H. Capone after W.H. Brooke in 1844, oil on panel by western Massachusetts' decorative painter, John Sawin, Jr. (1807-1874). Evidence points to Sawin's residency in Greenfield around the time this work was painted. An advertisement appears in the April 6, 1847 Greenfield Gazette and Courier for "Fresco Painting, John Sawin, Troy, NY -- All branches of ornamental painting." It is likely he moved to Greenfield shortly after this advertisement was published. PVMA's collection includes a broadside (L03.010) advertising his work as an ornamental painter, published in Greenfield around 1855. The 1850 Census has his residence in Greenfield and additionally lists Massachusetts as the state of his birth. In 1852, the Presdee & Edwards map of property ownership shows a "J. Sawin" with a property on the west end of Pleasant Street in downtown Greenfield. By the time of the 1870 Census, he is living in Winchendon, in western Worcester County, where he died on November 28, 1874, and is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Winchendon. Not much is yet known of his early life and work, but a bride's box, signed and dated by Sawin in 1827, provides some evidence that he was working as an ornamental painter in the decades before he painted this work. He signed the box: "J. Sawin, Coach Painter Wmsett." The "Wmsett" refers to Williamansett, formerly a village outside Springfield, Massachusetts, in what is now Chicopee. This box and its signature are illustrated in the March 1939 edition of the Magazine Antiques.
Tags:
mourning; deaths Link to share this object record:
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