1943-01-0

Made by Students

watercolor on silk

Elizabeth Catlin Cooke (1799-1893)

ca. between 1811 and 1815

Litchfield Historical Society

Litchfield, CT

33 3/4" length x 35" width

Watercolor on silk mourning picture. The scene show six figures dressed in deep mourning. Two stand at right of single obelisk on the left side of the picture and the others flank double obelisk on the right. In the right and left foreground are rows fo five stiff pine trees and over the tombstones are weeping willows. A river or pond with houses on the far shore divides the picture. The sky is rendered with blue wash at the top shading to pink above the horizon. Over this are pale suggestions of clouds in transparent white. Stone on the left inscrived "In memory of a sister/Achsah Catlin/obt. April 24 1810 A E 17 years/Fair was the flower and soft the vernal sky/Elate with hope we deemed no tempest nigh/When low a whirlwind's tempestuous gust/Laid all its beauties withering/in the dust" Left ...of center stone "In Memory of a Mother/Elizabeth Catlin/obt. Aug. 25, 1810 A.E. 45 years/Ere long your bodies must be found/like mind beneath the silent ground/Weep not for me refrain your tears/I must be here till Christ appears" Right of center stone "In memory of/Truman Catlin/Lost at sea Nov. /A.E. 34 years/No marble stone (illegible)/No weeping (illegible )/ No Turning (illegible) as from/Can form a (illegible) his/(illegible) there" Frame is a wood cove molding with moulded liner applied rope molding insert and leaf decoration at intervals on outer edge. The wood has been treated with gesso and gold leaf applied over all. Eglomise decoration around outside edge of glass. "Betsey Catlin" written in gold leaf on reverse side of glass at bottom.
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