Name/Title
Sunshine on the FarmEntry/Object ID
VHS-A-257Description
Landscape. Fence lower left corner, barn, left, doors open, tree next to barn, center. A Farmer sitting in wagon filled with hay, pulled by two horses. Lower right corner house in background at bottom of hill. Buggy right center.Context
James Franklin Gilman was born in 1850 in Woburn, Massachusetts to John and Elizabeth Gilman. His father was a cordwainer and his mother a seamstress. Early census records indicate his mother was born in Vermont. Little is known of his early life or education.
By the late 1860s he evidently made his living as an itinerant artist, often depicting the farm landscape and/or portraits of those providing him with room and board. Works remain of farms and people in Chelmsford, Groton, and Billerica, MA.
In 1872 he arrived in Barre, Vermont, a tall man with red hair and a distinctive red beard. He spent over twenty years in the general vicinity of Barre, Montpelier, Plainfield, and Calais. Most of the time was spent boarding with various farm families, though he did open a studio and school in Montpelier for a time.
At some point in the late 1880s or early 1890s he joined the Church of Christian Scientists and became acquainted with church found Mary Baker Eddy. He ultimately sold all of his works and the contents of his studio, some say in reaction to a lost love, and moved back to Massachusetts. He famously illustrated a poem entitled "Christ and Christmas" by Eddy.
The last decade of his life was spent in Athol, MA were he lived on the edge of poverty.Acquisition
Source (if not Accessioned)
UnknownMade/Created
Artist
Gilman, James Franklin (1850-1929)Date made
1888Lexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Primary Object Term
PrintNomenclature Sub-Class
Graphic DocumentsNomenclature Class
Documentary ObjectsNomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication ObjectsDimensions
Height
4-1/4 inWidth
7-3/4 inRelationships
Related Publications
Publication
James Franklin Gilman