IMPORTANT OVERMANTEL PAINTING OF A NEW ENGLAND LANDSCAPE
Canterbury, Connecticut, Circa 1810
Originally painted for the northeast bedroom chamber of the Robert Buswell / Palmer House in Canterbury, Connecticut and removed directly from the house. Depicts a coastal village with a church, stately homes and outbuildings, sailing vessels, an island lighthouse that bears resemblance to Boston Light, rolling hills and two figures in the foreground. Framed by painted swags and drapes trimmed with rope tassels.
Oil on Eastern white pine panel, 38" x 45". Framed 41" x 48".

Provenance:
Removed from the Robert Buswell / Palmer House, Canterbury, Connecticut, with accompanying photographs showing the overmantel painting in situ and its removal.          
Marguerite Riordan, Stonington, Connecticut, February 1, 1994.
The Collection of Nancy & Larry Dickson.

Exhibited:
The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York: "The Flowering of American Folk Art", February 1-March 24, 1974.
Additional show exhibits at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, April 22-June 2, 1974; and the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, June 24-September 15, 1974.

Reference:
The Flowering of American Folk Art (1776-1876) by Jean Lipman and Alice Winchester (N.Y.: Viking Press in cooperation with the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1974), p. 194, plate 259.

American Primitive Painting by Jean Lipman (Oxford University Press, 1942), fig. 101.

Notes:
While this is probably the work of an itinerant painter, several elements seen here show the influence of Winthrop Chandler (1747-1790) of Woodstock, Connecticut, who began his artistic career by painting overmantel pictures in the area of Woodstock and Canterbury in the mid-1760s. The distinctive round and rolling blue hills, the strong horizontal brushwork in the sky fading from blue to yellow to brown, and the overall palette of blues, yellows, greens and browns bear a strong resemblance to Chandler's "The Battle of Bunker Hill", which he created for his cousin Peter Chandler of Pomfret, Connecticut, between 1776 and 1780.

The Robert Buswell / Palmer House was likely built about 1720, with later additions. An April 1992 Historic Resources Inventory, under the Connecticut Historical Commission, describes the house as "an excellent example of 18th-century Connecticut architecture" and notes the interior is "highly original, with much paneling, several fireplaces, three corner cupboards, and an over mantel painting".

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