Lot Essay
Eliza Ann Robeson (1798-1834), a daughter of prominent merchant Jonas Robeson (1770-1819) of Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, rendered these two extraordinary watercolors. The mourning piece depicts her father, herself, and her siblings Jonas, Jr., Maria, and John Ward at the tomb of her mother and the goddess Aurora, flying in her chariot above a New England town. These works reveal America's passionate interest in Classicism and the spirit of sentimentality so prevalent in the New Republic.
While other versions of Aurora are known, this is the only piece with an accompanying Mourning picture, and were originally a double-side work. Now separated, both paintings are rare surviving examples from a small body of work attributed to a single New England school which incorporated collage and watercolor on silk. Aurora is thought to have been a classroom exercise, derived from an unkown print source. The subject was used by William Greatbatch, the English potter (working 1765-1782) the last quarter of the 18th century as well as Aaron Willard and Aaron Willard, Jr. depicted Aurora on eglomise panels of banjo clocks, see Albert Sack, American Antiques from Israel Sack (New York 1983), vol. VII, fig. 5276.
Other versions of Aurora from this school include one found in Quincy, Massachusetts, now in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center in Williamsburg, Virginia, illustrated and discussed in Beatrix T. Rumford American Folk Paintings (Boston 1988) pp. 225-226, fig. 174. A second example descended in the family of Ruth Downer (1797-1833) of Vermont and now in the collection of the Rhode Island School of Design. A third version sold in these Rooms on June 3, 1989, setting the record for school girl art and bears the original paper label inscribed "Hail bright Aurora, fair goddess of the Morn! Around thy splendid car, the smiling Hours submissive wait attendance, ascend and reilume the face of Nature with thy refulgent beams, and from the Arch of Heaven banish night." While each version of Aurora varies slightly in composition, each depicts the goddess in an Empire gown drawn by winged doves and surrounded by cherubs, flying above a full rigged ship on the shore of a town, uniting Classical mythology with the New England landscape.
While other versions of Aurora are known, this is the only piece with an accompanying Mourning picture, and were originally a double-side work. Now separated, both paintings are rare surviving examples from a small body of work attributed to a single New England school which incorporated collage and watercolor on silk. Aurora is thought to have been a classroom exercise, derived from an unkown print source. The subject was used by William Greatbatch, the English potter (working 1765-1782) the last quarter of the 18th century as well as Aaron Willard and Aaron Willard, Jr. depicted Aurora on eglomise panels of banjo clocks, see Albert Sack, American Antiques from Israel Sack (New York 1983), vol. VII, fig. 5276.
Other versions of Aurora from this school include one found in Quincy, Massachusetts, now in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center in Williamsburg, Virginia, illustrated and discussed in Beatrix T. Rumford American Folk Paintings (Boston 1988) pp. 225-226, fig. 174. A second example descended in the family of Ruth Downer (1797-1833) of Vermont and now in the collection of the Rhode Island School of Design. A third version sold in these Rooms on June 3, 1989, setting the record for school girl art and bears the original paper label inscribed "Hail bright Aurora, fair goddess of the Morn! Around thy splendid car, the smiling Hours submissive wait attendance, ascend and reilume the face of Nature with thy refulgent beams, and from the Arch of Heaven banish night." While each version of Aurora varies slightly in composition, each depicts the goddess in an Empire gown drawn by winged doves and surrounded by cherubs, flying above a full rigged ship on the shore of a town, uniting Classical mythology with the New England landscape.