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Exhibition History“The Flowering of American Folk Art,” M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA, June 24, 1974 – September 15, 1974; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, April 22, 1974 – June 2, 1974; The Whitney Museum of Art, New York, NY, February 1, 1974 – March 24, 1974.
Artist
Henry Christian Andrew Harmon Young
(1792 - 1861)
Mary Elizabeth Motz Birth and Baptismal Certificate
Datec. 1830-1840
DimensionsSight: 11 5/8 × 7 1/4 in. (29.5 × 18.4 cm)
Object numberN0333.1961
Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Stephen C. Clark
Photograph by Richard Walker
Label TextDecorated birth and baptismal certificates, part of a body of works known as frakturs, provided families with a record that combined important information with images that confirmed their closely-held values or reflected their cultural heritage.
Young's birth and baptismal certificates typically feature a man and woman facing each other in profile as well as a center table and bouquet of flowers. The two figures represent the happy parents of the newborn. As in similar certificates by the artist, the drawing of eyes, ears, hands, and mouths is stylized and impersonal.Exhibition History“The Flowering of American Folk Art,” M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA, June 24, 1974 – September 15, 1974; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, April 22, 1974 – June 2, 1974; The Whitney Museum of Art, New York, NY, February 1, 1974 – March 24, 1974.
On View
Not on view
