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Farmington Historic Home
A rare peek into history
1820 painting shows Farmington shortly after it was completed Farmington Historic Home |
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| By Diane Heilenman dheilenman@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal |
John Rutherford's gouache shows Farmington and four outbuildings 65 years before the first known photo of the house. |
| Sometimes the
glacial pace of routine research brings real rewards.
Carolyn Brooks, executive director of the Farmington Historic Home in Louisville, took the opportunity while on a personal visit to Washington recently to visit the Library of Congress for a peek at the 1,200-page scrapbook of A. P. Heinrich, a celebrated composer of the early 19th century with connections to the Speed family that built Farmington. There, she made a genuine discovery: a hitherto unknown painting of Farmington made four years after the home was completed in 1816. The artist was John Rutherford, a rising young artist of the period. Now virtually unknown, Rutherford died at the age of 26 in Louisville.It was a researcher's dream. The small landscape painting, a gouache (a type of opaque watercolor), is inscribed on the back: "View of Farmington, the residence of John Speed Esq. -- taken from a point a little beyond the bridge in front. 14 April 1820. By John Rutherford and presented to A.P. Heinrich." "You couldn't ask for more," Brooks said. Rutherford's view shows the house and four outbuildings 65 years before the first known photograph of Farmington and confirms there were three outbuildings to the left of the main house and another previously unsuspected brick outbuilding on the right, possibly a stable. The painting also shows a board fence and a stone bridge over what is still an active spring 185 years later. The bridge would have been an uncommon feature of the then-frontier, and it is, like the house, evidence of the design sophistication and ambition of the Speeds, Brooks said. The gouache is also notable, she said, because few such landscapes exist from the early 19th century. Most art patronage of the time was given to portraiture. The original art remains at the Library of Congress. Farmington has a copy of the Rutherford gouache on view and has reproduced prints and note cards for its museum store. |
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published 01 Jan 2006 by the Courier-Journal |
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