• 

This exhibition celebrates the Farnsworth’s rich holdings of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American folk art. There are paintings by the nationally renowned Grandma Moses, the Blue Hill, Maine preacher Jonathan Fisher, and, fittingly, a portrait of Fannie and Willie Farnsworth. Folk Art takes many forms, and the museum’s collection contains a carved wood figurehead of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, a gilded copper weather vane of the pace horse Ethan Allen by the W.A. Snow Ironworks of Boston, a carved and painted wood pilot house eagle by John Haley Bellamy, and a painted child’s rocking chair. Quilts, samplers, and a rare surviving ship’s banner from the late nineteenth-century sailing ship, Alice A. Hall will also be shown, along with toys which include a rocking horse, a checkerboard, a child-sized Bissell carpet sweeper, and a Boys National tool chest. An 1850 painted panoramic view of downtown Rockland by Samuel A Fuller is among these examples of American folk art from the Farnsworth’s collection. This exhibition is part of the Maine Folk Art Trail, a statewide celebration of folk art in eleven museums across the state.