Interior of Joel Jennings Homestead, Brookfield, Mass., with Zillah Jennings Reading by a Window, (painting).

Interior of Joel Jennings Homestead, Brookfield, Mass., with Zillah Jennings Reading by a Window, (painting).

Kilbourn, Marcia Ann Jennings, 1827-1902, painter.

Interior of Joel Jennings Homestead, Brookfield, Mass., with Zillah Jennings Reading by a Window, (painting).

9 1/2 x 16 in. (24.1 x 40.6 cm).

(Lower left:) M. A. Kilbourn signed

Interior scene depicting Joel Jennings' wife, Zillah (Walker) Jennings, reading the Bible in her room, seated by a window. Behind her is a low post bed; in the foreground to the right a secretary. Scattered about are several ladder-back chairs and Windsor chairs. The floor is covered with a striped carpet on top of which is a mat at the door and an oval braided rug in the foreground. To the left, in the foreground, presumably a great grandson, creeps in through the door.

Portrait female -- Jennings, Joel, Mrs. (Zillah Walker) -- Full length

Recreation -- Leisure -- Reading

Figure male -- Child

Architecture interior -- Domestic -- Bedroom

Architecture interior -- Detail -- Window

Object -- Written Matter -- Bible

Old Sturbridge Village, 1 Old Sturbridge Village Road, Sturbridge, Massachusetts 01566 Accession Number: 20.1.79

Acquired from Mesler, Warren E., Mrs., Box 73, Bakersfield, Vermont Nov. 16, 1964.

Mrs. Zillah (Walker) Jennings was born in Brookfied, Mass., Aug. 1, 1766 and died Feb. 2, 1852. The room portrayed in the picture was willed to her to live in for the rest of her life by her husband who died Oct. 21, 1813. The rest of the house went to Joel's son, Deacon Calvin Jennings and his wife, Laura (Hastings) Jennings. Their daughter, Marcia Ann (Jennings) Kilbourn painted this picture of her grandmother's room. The original is presumed to have been painted before 1852, the year her grandmother died. She made a copy for one of her sons some time later. The painting was acquired from the granddaughter of the painter, Mrs. Warren E. Mesler (nee Orpha Kilbourn).

Owner, 1974: Registration Records.

Old Sturbridge Village, 1990.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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