$2,115
American School, 19th Century View of the Ursuline Convent, Charlestown, Massachusetts. Unsigned. Oil on canvas, c. 1830, 12 1/4 x 18 in., in a period gilt gesso frame. Condition: Punctures, tears, surface grime. Note: The Ursuline convent on Mount Benedict in Charlestown, Massachusetts, (in an area now known as East Somerville) provided a boarding school for girls aged six to fourteen, most of whom were daughters of upper class Protestants of Boston. In the early 1800s a revival of evangelical Protestantism and a disdain for working-class Irish immigrants gave rise to militant anti-Catholicism. In 1834, rumors spread that the nuns were mistreating their students. These rumors eventually fueled an angry mob of townspeople, on August 11, 1834, to storm the convent and burn it down, which was done without interference from authorities. Fortunately the nuns and students escaped out the back of the building.
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2007-11-04
