Painting

Title:

Grafton Centre, N.H.

Object Name:

Painting

Object ID:

2017.018

Creator:

Poole, Franklin (1808-1898)

Date:

circa 1850

Description:

Landscape painting, Grafton Center, NH, by Franklin Poole (1808-1898), c. 1850. Oil on paper. Horizontal rectangle. Depicts two houses, a barn, and a lane, with two men conversing and a man walking. Village green in foreground. Pile of wood on right. Purple hills in background. Inscribed in ink, "Grafton Centre, N.H.", lower right corner. Gilded gesso on pine frame, glazed.

Material:

Paper

Dimensions:

H-10 W-14 inches

Provenance:

Acquired by the seller from dealer Hercules J. Pappachristos of Derry, NH. Purchased at the New Hampshire Antiques Show, Manchester, August 11, 2017.

Artist Franklin Poole, the son of Timothy and Jerusha (Richardson) Poole, was born in Reading, MA, on October 19, 1808. A house, sign, and ornamental painter, he probably learned the trade from his father. Poole was active in community affairs, serving as a member of the school committee, Town of South Reading (1833, 1848); secretary of the Franklin Lyceum, Wakefield, MA (1840); and as an organizer of the Wakefield Public Library (1856). He also became active in Massachusetts politics as an antislavery advocate during the 1830s, serving South Reading as representative in the state legislature (1847), and as a newspaper publisher. He chronicled the landscape and character of early 19th-century Wakefield through a series of "memory" paintings preserved at the Wakefield Historical Society. His wife, Rebecca Prescott Rollins (1812-1883), was a native of Deerfield, NH.

Credit Line:

New Hampshire Historical Society Purchase, Katharine Prentis Murphy Fund

Subjects:

Houses, Villages