Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Illuminated Tailpiece with a Palette and Brushes for William T. Walters' Drawings Album "Original Sketches"
(18th and 19th Centuries )
This tailpiece was specially commissioned for one of William T. Walters' albums of drawings. It shows a palette and brushes covered by a spider's web, the spider is suspended from a brush below. Under this is the word "finis," Latin for "end." The seemingly abandoned pallette perhaps suggests the mortality of the artist. This would echo a second tailpiece by the same artist which shows a skull, and is inscribed "emigravit," meaning "departed."
Inscription
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
Commissioned by William T. Walters, Baltimore, by 1859; inherited by Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.
Geographies
USA (Place of Origin)
Measurements
H: 7 5/16 × W: 9 1/2 in. (18.57 × 24.13 cm)
Credit Line
Commissioned by William T. Walters, by 1859
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
37.1581
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