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During the early 19th century, women painted and embroidered countless scenes honoring departed friends and relatives. They were an expression of the universality of death and a belief in eternal life with a promise of heavenly reunion. Frequently an important part of the curriculum in female seminaries, these mourning pictures derived from late 18th century European and English design sources and typically included grieving figures, funeral urns, and weeping willows.
Exhibition History“Art of the Everyman: American Folk Art from the Fenimore Art Museum,” Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT, May 28, 2014 – September 29, 2014.
"As They Saw It: Women Artists Then & Now", Springfield Museums, Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA, October 14, 2023 - January 14, 2024.
BibliographyLipman, Jean. "Eunice Pinney." from "American Folk Painters of Three Centuries." Lipman and Armstrong, eds., NY: Hudson Hills Press Inc., 1980.
Artist
Eunice Griswold Pinney
(1770 - 1849)
Memorial To Herself
Date1813
MediumWatercolor on paper
DimensionsSight: 14 1/2 × 18 in. (36.8 × 45.7 cm)
Object numberN0075.1961
Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Stephen C. Clark
Photograph by Richard Walker
Label TextEunice Pinney prepared a memorial picture to herself when she was 43 years old, leaving space on the tombstone for her age and year of death. Pinney painted more than fifty watercolors, nine of which are memorials.During the early 19th century, women painted and embroidered countless scenes honoring departed friends and relatives. They were an expression of the universality of death and a belief in eternal life with a promise of heavenly reunion. Frequently an important part of the curriculum in female seminaries, these mourning pictures derived from late 18th century European and English design sources and typically included grieving figures, funeral urns, and weeping willows.
Exhibition History“Art of the Everyman: American Folk Art from the Fenimore Art Museum,” Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT, May 28, 2014 – September 29, 2014.
"As They Saw It: Women Artists Then & Now", Springfield Museums, Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA, October 14, 2023 - January 14, 2024.
BibliographyLipman, Jean. "Eunice Pinney." from "American Folk Painters of Three Centuries." Lipman and Armstrong, eds., NY: Hudson Hills Press Inc., 1980.
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