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Samuel Fleet Homestead

Frances Flora Palmer

American Art

Frances “Fanny” Palmer was a professional artist who worked for the famous printmaking firm of Currier & Ives for twenty years. Although watercolor was considered a polite accomplishment for genteel women—what an 1856 writer referred to as a “husband-catcher”—it was rare for a woman to have an artistic career in the mid-nineteenth century. This picture of a handsome Neoclassical mansion on Fulton Street in Brooklyn demonstrates Palmer’s deft control of the watercolor medium and her eye for anecdotal detail.
MEDIUM Transparent and opaque watercolor over graphite on cream, moderately thick, slightly textured wove paper mounted to Japanese paper.
DATES ca. 1850s
DIMENSIONS 18 3/8 x 27 1/4 in. (46.7 x 69.2 cm)  (show scale)
MARKINGS Partial watermark in paper: "J WHAT ... / 184"
SIGNATURE Signed lower left: "F. F. Palmer"
COLLECTIONS American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 43.171
CREDIT LINE Bequest of Clara H. Baxter
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Frances Flora Palmer (American, 1812–1876). Samuel Fleet Homestead, ca. 1850s. Transparent and opaque watercolor over graphite on cream, moderately thick, slightly textured wove paper mounted to Japanese paper., 18 3/8 x 27 1/4 in. (46.7 x 69.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of Clara H. Baxter, 43.171 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 43.171_SL1.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 43.171_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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