English: Sarah E. Harvey, American, 1834–1924

Winsted, Connecticut, ca. 1877 Oil on canvas 45.5 x 71.1 cm (17 15/16 x 28 in.) frame: 55.9 × 81.9 cm (22 × 32 1/4 in.) Gift of Edward Duff Balken, Class of 1897 y1958-100

Although Sarah Harvey claimed never to have received instruction in painting, she completed an estimated one thousand pictures over a career of more than six decades, all but one hundred given away to family and friends. Her subjects ranged widely, from still lifes to locations in Europe and the tropics based on print and photographic sources, but depictions of the local topography surrounding her Winsted, Connecticut, home were likely produced at least in part through direct observation. In this view of the thriving mill town at the confluence of the Mad and Still Rivers, an idealized quietude prevails. Shown devoid of human activity, the scene is rendered with such precision that individual buildings — some probably containing the paintings Harvey distributed locally as gifts — are clearly identifiable, including St. Joseph’s Church and Monastery at left and, most prominently, at far right, the Strong Manufacturing Company, makers of gilded coffin hardware.