Fire Board With Scene Depicting a Bear
c.1835
category: fireboard painting
medium: oil on wood
Collection of the New York State Historical Association.
Description: The fireboard, used to cover the fireplace opening during the summer, is painted with a landscape scene. The painting depicts fields, tall trees, a farmhouse, and several animals. The fireboard received its name from the very large pear-like objects suspended from the tree tops, and a distant tree, in which a bear (or raccoon) is scrambling up the trunk.
Reference:
Rivard, Paul. "Documentation of painting 'bears and beeves'". Folk life project, cooperstown graduate program, 1967.
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