THEOREM PAINTING OF AN EXOTIC TEMPLE

Purchased in 1981 from the Toby (Tobey) family of Mill River, Massachusetts, this theorem is believed to have been painted by Amanda Penelope Williams (d. 1842) of Alford, Massachusetts. She married Lorenzo H. Rice (b. 1806) and their daughter, Angeline (1836-1917) married Henry Augustus Tobey (1821-1903) of Great Barrington, Massachusetts. As uncovered by Peter Goodman in his files, an 1810-1830 paper-covered box with watercolor decoration in the collection of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center (acc. no. 1931.708.1) bears a similar scene with fisherman in the foreground, a building with stone bridge on the right and sheep on the hillside (see also Dean A. Fales, Jr., American Painted Furniture, 1660-1880 (New York, 1972), p. 181, figs. 289, 289a).