{"object":[{"sourceId":{"label":"Source ID","value":"12"},"copyright":{"label":"Copyright","value":"The American Folk Art Museum believes this work to be in the public domain."},"creditline":{"label":"Credit Line","value":"Museum purchase"},"endDate":{"label":"End Date","value":"1838"},"sortNumber":{"label":"Sort Number","value":"1981    12   24"},"invno":{"label":"Accession number","value":"1981.12.24"},"description":{"label":"Description","value":"Frontal three-Quarter length potrait of a young woman with pale blue eyes and pink lips seated in yellow chair with painted decoration across rail, right arm crossing before waist top of head with two tortoiseshell combs. Wearing black dress: full sleeves with lace trim, lace yoke with high collar and lace around her nack and gold band on third finger  of (P) R Hand. Details of face pencilled in with heavy shading around areas of eyes, sides of nose, above lips and chin. Blue paint outlining figure to edges. Frame: wood frame molding with gilded outside and inside edges, middle area painted black. Mitered corners, nail construction, backed with foam core; old board (in two pieces)nailed to frame four sides."},"medium":{"label":"Medium","value":"Watercolor and gouache on paper with applied gold paper"},"geographyPlaceregion":{"label":"Place/Region","value":"Peterborough"},"media":{"label":"Media","value":{"mediaURL":"https://collection.folkartmuseum.org/internal/media/dispatcher/1267/full","mediaDepartment":"Object Photographs","mediaType":"Image","mediaId":"1267"}},"title":{"label":"Title","value":"Eliza Gordon (Mrs. Zophar Willard Brooks)"},"geographyCity":{"value":"Peterborough"},"textEntriesWebsitedisplaytext":{"value":["The Shutes were a married couple who first painted separetely and than collaborated on many watercolor portraits until S.A. Shute's death in 1836. Their joint work is characterized by strong diagonal or horizontal washes in the background (only two paintings are known with vertical striping, addtiion to watercolor and gouache, figures with small hands, heavy pencil shading around the arms and body. The portrait of Elizabeth Piper dated Jan 11, 1833 places the Shutes in Peterborough NH. The subject of this painting, Eliza Gordon Brooks (b.Oct 28,1813 or 1815), was working in the Phoenix Mill in Peterborough that same year, presumably when this portrait was taken. The Shutes are known to have painted other portraits of mill girls such as that of Electa Pierce Snow (see miele sale,Sothebys 1833-feb 1835). She married Zophar WIllard Brooks on June 25th, 1835. He worked as a farmer, carriage and house-painter. For several years, residing in Jaffrey and than moving to Hancock in 1840 where he and his wife remainded and had three children. Brooks held the office of captain of the first company militia in Hancock was one of the selectman for many years and was the first master of the John Hancock Grange. He was a member of the legislature for the years 1881-2. The Phoenix Mill was built in 1793 by Samuel Smith. Cotton Manufacturing was introduced in 1812. By 1823 the Mill was completely devoted to cotton spinning and weaving. July 1831, the name of the mill was changed to the Phoenix Factory.","This portrait of Eliza Gordon exemplifies the Shutes\u2019 method of working. It features the characteristic heavy pencil shading, watercolor wash in the background, unusual use of applied gold paper to simulate jewelry, unpainted areas to suggest sheer fabric, and ribbon-like spaces between the full sleeves and waist. It is also an example of the type of portrait the Shutes produced for the young women employed by New England textile mills.Eliza Gordon (1813\u20131893) was born in Henniker, New Hampshire, and worked in the Phoenix Factory, a cotton mill in Peterborough, from June 1833 to February 1835. In her portrait, she is seated in a paint-decorated chair and holds a rose. In June 1835, she married Zophar Willard Brooks (1812\u20131906), of Hancock, New Hampshire. Brooks was a farmer, a carriage and housepainter, and a chair decorator. The couple lived in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, for a few years, then removed to the Brooks family property in Hancock by 1840. Brooks held many public positions in his community. Stacy C. Hollander, \"Eliza Gordon (Mrs. Zophar Willard Brooks),\" in American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 322","PAINTING","Frontal three-Quarter length potrait of a young woman with pale blue eyes and pink lips seated in yellow chair with painted decoration across rail, right arm crossing before waist top of head with two tortoiseshell combs. Wearing black dress: full sleeves with lace trim, lace yoke with high collar and lace around her nack and gold band on third finger  of (P) R Hand. Details of face pencilled in with heavy shading around areas of eyes, sides of nose, above lips and chin. Blue paint outlining figure to edges. Frame: wood frame molding with gilded outside and inside edges, middle area painted black. Mitered corners, nail construction, backed with foam core; old board (in two pieces)nailed to frame four sides.","Eliza Gordon (1813\u20131893) was around twenty years of age when she gazed clear-eyed and open-faced from her watercolor portrait painted by Dr. Samuel Addison and Ruth Whittier Shute. Like so many young women living on rural New England farms, she left home in Henniker, New Hampshire, and traveled twenty-seven miles to Peterborough, where she found employment in the Phoenix Factory, one of the many textile mills that were bringing prosperity to the river towns of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Young women flocked to the mills for \"every reason, and for no reason at all,\" as mill worker Harriet Farley wrote in 1844, though many were lured by the promise of opportunities for self-sufficiency, broadened horizons, and companionship in chaperoned communities. The reality of mill life and work was much harsher, as young women came to appreciate and ultimately rebel against, staging the first labor strike in the United States in 1824, and organizing the first union of women workers a decade later.Gordon worked in the Phoenix Factory from June 1833 through February 1835. The thirteen-hour day started as soon as it was light and ended at 7:30 in the evening, broken only by two half-hour intervals for breakfast and lunch. The young women enjoyed two hours of liberty before curfew. Gordon was stationed in the preparation room and also engaged in drawing, meaning she was responsible for ensuring the lines of yarn remained straight and parallel as they were fed into the looms. A large percentage of her salary went toward room and board in one of the boarding houses built by the mill for the express purpose of housing their workforce. Women lived five beds to a small, low ceilinged room, with one small window, no furniture or closet, bandboxes stored under the headboards, and their trunks used for sitting. Yet a library was made available to them, and the hours at the machines provided time for reflection and mental improvement as they challenged each other\u2019s intellectual growth.The faces of these young women would have remained entirely unknown but for the work of the Shutes, whose distinctive portraits in watercolor on large paper offered a less expensive though no less impressive alternative to oil on canvas. The couple formed an unusual artistic collaboration shortly after they were married in 1827. Their respective roles in this partnership are indicated on a small number of portraits inscribed: \"Drawn by R.W. Shute / and / Painted by S.A. Shute.\" The Shutes employed a number of unorthodox techniques and materials in their work. Oils were interspersed with layers of varnish and glazes; watercolors were supplemented with pastel, gouache, pencil, metallic paint, foil, collage, and gum arabic; areas of paper were even left blank to suggest transparency and other effects. Most of the watercolors feature vigorous diagonal or horizontal strokes in the background. After Dr. Shute\u2019s untimely death at the age of thirty-three, Ruth continued to paint in oil and pastel, remarrying in 1840 and removing to Kentucky.Eliza Gordon married Zophar Willard Brooks (1812\u20131906) in June 1835. Brooks was a farmer on a family homestead in Hancock, New Hampshire, and also a decorative painter of houses, carriages, and stenciled furniture, much like the chair in which Eliza sits in her portrait. After a brief stint in Jaffrey, the couple returned to Hancock, where both led full, industrious lives and raised their large family, although Eliza still made time to dip thirty-two dozen candles every year, take care of the milking, make cheese and butter, spin wool, and knit socks and mittens. After her death, she was remembered as a \"fine example of the old-fashioned New England mother.\"Stacy C. Hollander, \"Eliza Gordon,\" exhibition copy for American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2020.","portrait"]},"bibliography":{"label":"Bibliography","value":""},"collections":{"label":"Collections","value":["Works on Paper","eMuseum - Collection Highlights"]},"geography":{"label":"Geography","value":"Peterborough"},"id":{"label":"Id","value":"152197"},"geographyState":{"value":"New Hampshire"},"markings":{"label":"Markings","value":"Xerox copy in object file of inscription, reverse of painting: ELiza (Gordon) Brooks born in Hennicker, N.H. )Oct 28th 1813/ Taken when she worked in the Phoenix Mill/Peterboro,N.H."},"geographyCountry":{"value":"United States"},"onview":{"label":"On View","value":"0"},"people":{"label":"Artist / Maker","value":[{"displayOrder":"1","personRole":"Artist","personID":"2049","content":"Samuel A. Shute"},{"displayOrder":"2","personRole":"Artist","personID":"1024","content":"Ruth W. Shute"}]},"classifications":{"label":"Classification(s)","value":"Drawings"},"textEntries":{"label":"Text Entries","value":["The Shutes were a married couple who first painted separetely and than collaborated on many watercolor portraits until S.A. Shute's death in 1836. Their joint work is characterized by strong diagonal or horizontal washes in the background (only two paintings are known with vertical striping, addtiion to watercolor and gouache, figures with small hands, heavy pencil shading around the arms and body. The portrait of Elizabeth Piper dated Jan 11, 1833 places the Shutes in Peterborough NH. The subject of this painting, Eliza Gordon Brooks (b.Oct 28,1813 or 1815), was working in the Phoenix Mill in Peterborough that same year, presumably when this portrait was taken. The Shutes are known to have painted other portraits of mill girls such as that of Electa Pierce Snow (see miele sale,Sothebys 1833-feb 1835). She married Zophar WIllard Brooks on June 25th, 1835. He worked as a farmer, carriage and house-painter. For several years, residing in Jaffrey and than moving to Hancock in 1840 where he and his wife remainded and had three children. Brooks held the office of captain of the first company militia in Hancock was one of the selectman for many years and was the first master of the John Hancock Grange. He was a member of the legislature for the years 1881-2. The Phoenix Mill was built in 1793 by Samuel Smith. Cotton Manufacturing was introduced in 1812. By 1823 the Mill was completely devoted to cotton spinning and weaving. July 1831, the name of the mill was changed to the Phoenix Factory.","This portrait of Eliza Gordon exemplifies the Shutes\u2019 method of working. It features the characteristic heavy pencil shading, watercolor wash in the background, unusual use of applied gold paper to simulate jewelry, unpainted areas to suggest sheer fabric, and ribbon-like spaces between the full sleeves and waist. It is also an example of the type of portrait the Shutes produced for the young women employed by New England textile mills.Eliza Gordon (1813\u20131893) was born in Henniker, New Hampshire, and worked in the Phoenix Factory, a cotton mill in Peterborough, from June 1833 to February 1835. In her portrait, she is seated in a paint-decorated chair and holds a rose. In June 1835, she married Zophar Willard Brooks (1812\u20131906), of Hancock, New Hampshire. Brooks was a farmer, a carriage and housepainter, and a chair decorator. The couple lived in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, for a few years, then removed to the Brooks family property in Hancock by 1840. Brooks held many public positions in his community. Stacy C. Hollander, \"Eliza Gordon (Mrs. Zophar Willard Brooks),\" in American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 322","PAINTING","Frontal three-Quarter length potrait of a young woman with pale blue eyes and pink lips seated in yellow chair with painted decoration across rail, right arm crossing before waist top of head with two tortoiseshell combs. Wearing black dress: full sleeves with lace trim, lace yoke with high collar and lace around her nack and gold band on third finger  of (P) R Hand. Details of face pencilled in with heavy shading around areas of eyes, sides of nose, above lips and chin. Blue paint outlining figure to edges. Frame: wood frame molding with gilded outside and inside edges, middle area painted black. Mitered corners, nail construction, backed with foam core; old board (in two pieces)nailed to frame four sides.","Eliza Gordon (1813\u20131893) was around twenty years of age when she gazed clear-eyed and open-faced from her watercolor portrait painted by Dr. Samuel Addison and Ruth Whittier Shute. Like so many young women living on rural New England farms, she left home in Henniker, New Hampshire, and traveled twenty-seven miles to Peterborough, where she found employment in the Phoenix Factory, one of the many textile mills that were bringing prosperity to the river towns of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Young women flocked to the mills for \"every reason, and for no reason at all,\" as mill worker Harriet Farley wrote in 1844, though many were lured by the promise of opportunities for self-sufficiency, broadened horizons, and companionship in chaperoned communities. The reality of mill life and work was much harsher, as young women came to appreciate and ultimately rebel against, staging the first labor strike in the United States in 1824, and organizing the first union of women workers a decade later.Gordon worked in the Phoenix Factory from June 1833 through February 1835. The thirteen-hour day started as soon as it was light and ended at 7:30 in the evening, broken only by two half-hour intervals for breakfast and lunch. The young women enjoyed two hours of liberty before curfew. Gordon was stationed in the preparation room and also engaged in drawing, meaning she was responsible for ensuring the lines of yarn remained straight and parallel as they were fed into the looms. A large percentage of her salary went toward room and board in one of the boarding houses built by the mill for the express purpose of housing their workforce. Women lived five beds to a small, low ceilinged room, with one small window, no furniture or closet, bandboxes stored under the headboards, and their trunks used for sitting. Yet a library was made available to them, and the hours at the machines provided time for reflection and mental improvement as they challenged each other\u2019s intellectual growth.The faces of these young women would have remained entirely unknown but for the work of the Shutes, whose distinctive portraits in watercolor on large paper offered a less expensive though no less impressive alternative to oil on canvas. The couple formed an unusual artistic collaboration shortly after they were married in 1827. Their respective roles in this partnership are indicated on a small number of portraits inscribed: \"Drawn by R.W. Shute / and / Painted by S.A. Shute.\" The Shutes employed a number of unorthodox techniques and materials in their work. Oils were interspersed with layers of varnish and glazes; watercolors were supplemented with pastel, gouache, pencil, metallic paint, foil, collage, and gum arabic; areas of paper were even left blank to suggest transparency and other effects. Most of the watercolors feature vigorous diagonal or horizontal strokes in the background. After Dr. Shute\u2019s untimely death at the age of thirty-three, Ruth continued to paint in oil and pastel, remarrying in 1840 and removing to Kentucky.Eliza Gordon married Zophar Willard Brooks (1812\u20131906) in June 1835. Brooks was a farmer on a family homestead in Hancock, New Hampshire, and also a decorative painter of houses, carriages, and stenciled furniture, much like the chair in which Eliza sits in her portrait. After a brief stint in Jaffrey, the couple returned to Hancock, where both led full, industrious lives and raised their large family, although Eliza still made time to dip thirty-two dozen candles every year, take care of the milking, make cheese and butter, spin wool, and knit socks and mittens. After her death, she was remembered as a \"fine example of the old-fashioned New England mother.\"Stacy C. Hollander, \"Eliza Gordon,\" exhibition copy for American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2020.","portrait"]},"beginDate":{"label":"Begin Date","value":"1828"},"displayDate":{"label":"Date","value":"c. 1833"},"exhibitions":{"label":"Exhibitions","value":[{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Saturday, July 18, 2015 - Sunday, September 27, 2015","exhibitionEndISODate":"2015-09-27","exhibitionID":"169","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"2015-07-18","exhibitionBeginDate":"2015","exhibitionTitle":"Folk Art and American Modernism","exhibitionEndDate":"2015"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Saturday, April 4, 1992 - Sunday, September 6, 1992","exhibitionEndISODate":"1992-09-06","exhibitionID":"406","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"1992-04-04","exhibitionBeginDate":"1992","exhibitionTitle":"The Art of Embellishment","exhibitionEndDate":"1992"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - Sunday, October 7, 2012","exhibitionEndISODate":"2012-10-07","exhibitionID":"151","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"2012-06-20","exhibitionBeginDate":"2012","exhibitionTitle":"COMPASS: Folk Art in Four Directions","exhibitionEndDate":"2012"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"1993\u20132001","exhibitionEndISODate":"2001-10","exhibitionID":"64","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"1993-10-05","exhibitionBeginDate":"1993","exhibitionTitle":"America's Heritage","exhibitionEndDate":"2001"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Thursday, April 13, 1989 - Sunday, July 16, 1989","exhibitionEndISODate":"1989-07-16","exhibitionID":"7","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"1989-04-13","exhibitionBeginDate":"1989","exhibitionTitle":"Expressions of A New Spirit","exhibitionEndDate":"1989"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Saturday, May 22, 2021 - Sunday, October 8, 2023","exhibitionEndISODate":"2023-10-08","exhibitionID":"245","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"2021-05-22","exhibitionBeginDate":"2021","exhibitionTitle":"American Perspectives (Travel)","exhibitionEndDate":"2023"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Wednesday, February 24, 1982 - Sunday, September 19, 1982","exhibitionEndISODate":"1982-09-19","exhibitionID":"14","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"1982-02-24","exhibitionBeginDate":"1982","exhibitionTitle":"Folk Art Masterpieces","exhibitionEndDate":"1982"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Wednesday, November 25, 1981 - Sunday, September 19, 1982","exhibitionEndISODate":"1982-09-19","exhibitionID":"272","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"1981-11-25","exhibitionBeginDate":"1981","exhibitionTitle":"A Selection from the Permanent Collection","exhibitionEndDate":"1982"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Tuesday, February 11, 2020 - Sunday, January 3, 2021","exhibitionEndISODate":"2021-01-03","exhibitionID":"239","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"2020-02-11","exhibitionBeginDate":"2020","exhibitionTitle":"American Perspectives","exhibitionEndDate":"2021"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"Thursday, July 11, 2002 - Sunday, January 5, 2003","exhibitionEndISODate":"2003-01-26","exhibitionID":"73","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"2002-07-11","exhibitionBeginDate":"2002","exhibitionTitle":"American Anthem","exhibitionEndDate":"2003"},{"exhibitionDisplayDate":"1983-1988","exhibitionEndISODate":"1988","exhibitionID":"292","exhibitionISOBeginDate":"1983","exhibitionBeginDate":"1983","exhibitionTitle":"American Folk Art: Expressions of a New Spirit","exhibitionEndDate":"1988"}]},"dimensions":{"label":"Dimensions","value":"24 5/8 × 19\""}}]}