Mourning Picture

DateProbably 1815-1825

MediumWatercolor on silk

DimensionsUnframed: 16 x 19 1/2in. (40.6 x 49.5cm) and Framed: 18 1/2 x 22in.

Credit LineFrom the collection of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller; gift of the Museum of Modern Art

Object number1937.404.1

DescriptionA mourning scene showing a young woman in a white robe or dress decking with flowers an uninscribed, urn-topped tomb that stands in the center. Behind her stands a weeping willow with a different type of tree at the left. A white gate appears to the woman's right with a village in the distance behind it. A body of water is visible running through the middle ground beyond the tomb.Label TextUltimately the pose of this mourning figure can be traced to Angelica Kauffmann's eighteenth-century oil painting of "Fame Decorating the Tomb of Shakespeare." An engraving after Kauffmann's work probably served as the direct source for the amateur artist who created this delicate rendering on silk.ProvenanceFound in Quincy, Mass., by Bessie J. Howard; purchased from Howard by Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.; given by Rockefeller to the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, in 1939; given by the MoMA to CWF in June 1954.