Vernacular art at Winterthur - Winterthur - folk art collection at Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum

Magazine Antiques, Jan, 2002 by Betty Fiske, Anne A. Verplanck

Caught deep in the gutter of the fraktur pocket is a fuzz of linen thread fibers. The section with the inscription has a crescent-shaped slit that bulges out and several perfectly round holes in the painted paper. One can speculate that the slit was made by the fingers of a hand repeatedly reaching into the pocket and catching on the paper. Needles or pins affixed to the inscription paper to secure them between uses could explain the round holes. Thus, it may be that the pocket was used like the needlework pockets made by Pennsylvania Germans to hold pins, needles, thread, and perhaps scraps of cloth for mending. Several of these are in the Winterthur collection.

It has been observed that the birds (perhaps doves) facing each other are a motif used for centuries in southern Germany to decorate wedding gifts. Perhaps the fraktur pocket was a wedding gift, a pretty place for Anna Junkin to keep precious sewing utensils. Until another surviving fraktur pocket surfaces, we may never know for sure. Nonetheless, the research on and conservation of the pocket exemplifly the effort to reassess the Winterthur collection using scientific analysis and new historical perspectives.

Du Pont's collecting of folk art broadened throughout his life. Hooked rugs, weather vanes, ironwork, and scrimshaw all caught his eye. (15) Yet he acquired few oil paintings that could be described as vernacular. One of the versions of the Peaceable Kingdom by Edward Hicks (1780-1849), a Massachusetts overmantel, and several paintings by Frederick Kemmelmeyer (c. 1755-1821) are among the exceptions. Instead, du Pont purchased a wide range of paintings, most of which are exemplary examples of American art painted by well-known artists and often representing important sitters. (16)

A pair of double-sided portraits recently acquired by Winterthur expands the museum's holdings of vernacular paintings (Pls. VIII-XI). The portraits of the two couples were probably painted in Columbia County, New York, or in central Massachusetts, in the late 1820s. The pair shown in Plates VIII and IX are quite striking, showing a man and a woman whose features are rendered in considerable detail, although their costumes receive even more attention. This pair of portraits is part of a larger group of paintings from this region by an unidentified artist. (17)

The more traditional portraits on the reverse (Pls. X, XI) were probably painted a few years later than the ones in Plates VIII and IX. It should be noted that the portrait of the woman is painted on the reverse of the first portrait of a man and the second portrait of a man is painted on the reverse of the first portrait of a woman. The costumes of all four sitters represent the period 1825 to 1830, with those in the earlier portraits dating closer to 1825 than the ones in the later portraits. (18) Although the two pairs appear to be painted in different styles, several features suggest that all four paintings are by the same artist. Note the similarity of the hands, particularly at the juncture of the thumb and forefinger. In the women's portraits the line of the jaw is rendered in a like mannen The paintings of the men show a comparable positioning of the chin within the raised shirt collar.