Day 368 - Painted door


 July 14, 2024

Gallery 721 is a small space that seems to function mainly as a pass-through to get to the other galleries on the floor. It holds just two works, a portrait of a boy by John Durand, a colonial-era painter, and the painted door with companion panels that is the subject of today's entry.

The door actually seems to be a double door (or how would anyone get through it?), perhaps 40 inches wide and quite tall (10 feet?). At the top is a horizontal rectangular panel showing Elijah being drawn up to heaven in his fiery chariot. The remaining six panels are vertical and completely different in character: They show flowers arranged alternately in ceramic baskets or double-handled vases, all different from each other. (One vase, for example, has a human face on its front.)  The flowers are painted largely in delicate tones of pink with dark green leaves and also differ from one panel to the next. Among them, I recognize tulips, a rose, and a sunflower, and a gardener would undoubtedly be able to identify many more.  The forms are simple, and the panels impress me as the work of a folk artist rather than an academically trained one, but I admire the effort to introduce variety and visual interest and to beautify a utilitarian structure.

When I see the work, I think, "Oh, Pennsylvania," I guess because I've seen a good deal of painted furniture from the Pennsulvania Dutch area. It turns out that the door comes from a farmhouse in Griggstown, New Jersey, which, I learn, is an unincorporated community a bit north of Trenton -   not so far from Pennsylvania, but not so near, either. I take some comfort in reading on the placard that the panels and door "exhibit a strong Dutch influence." And then I remember that the "Dutch" in "Pennsylvania Dutch" is actually a corruption of "Deutsch," and that the Pennsylvania settlers were German. Another "Oh well" moment.

I wonder where in the house the door was placed. Presumably inside, to protect it from the elements, and in a place where it would be seen and enjoyed by the house's owners and, I hope, by others.

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