My photos do not justice to this marvelous drawing, the presence and charm and richness of which I'm not able to capture fully (while also trying to avoid glare) --but if no one falls in love with it, this is one I'll be more than glad to keep for myself. To my eye it's just a wonderful thing, just the sort of early naive drawing I'm perpetually in search of, with this lovingly, delicately rendered peacock at the center, proud and humble at once, executed in ink with watercolor detail on the tail plumes, and framed on three sides with vines and berries, and grass underfoot. Even better to find it in what I believe is the original frame, with a handwritten note on the wood panel on back dated 1829 (though the drawing could be a bit earlier) and attributing it to the mother of an E.H Metcalf and a J.B Goodnow (or similar on the latter.) In addition loving drawings of this sort as much as just about anything else, I really love the subject here being the peacock, often viewed as as a symbol of excessive pride and vanit being rendered in such an honest and unfussy sort of way.
Framed, under glass: 11 1/8 x 9 3/4”. Sight: 5 3/4 x 7 1/8. Both frame and drawing are in very good good condition. There is one clean tear to the drawing coming up from the bottom, which does not at all detract.
