Christ Church, Shrewsbury

Periodca. 1845 - 1865

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions13 × 23.8 in. (33 × 60.5 cm)

ClassificationsLandscapes & Still Life

Credit LineGift of Mrs. J. Amory Haskell, 1932

Object number242

DescriptionA view of Christ Episcopal Church in Shrewsbury, Monmouth County, from the northwest. The white-painted building is shown surrounded by its graveyard and a white-painted picket fence. It features two pedimented Doric order entrances on the right-hand elevation, each surmounted by a rectangular window covered by green-painted shutters. Four large arched windows with keystones and closed green shutters ornament the long elevation, and the entire structure is surrounded at the eaves level with a bold cove cornice. The gable features a round window with keystones at the compass points. An octagonal cupola sits atop the right-hand gable, its arches closed with green shutters. A half-dome roof on it is capped with a slender support for a wrought-iron weather vane. To the left of the main body of the church is a small single-story extension with a single entrance door and window. A large oak tree along the fence dominates the left half of the painting. A row of cedar trees appears on the right-hand edge of the painting, behind which are shown outbuildings associated with houses beyond the church. A white dog with black and brown features rests in the shade of the oak tree outside the picket fence line.
Curatorial RemarksA woodcut based on the painting appears on page 583 of the History of Monmouth County by Franklin Ellis (Philadelphia: R. T. Peck & Co., 1885). It copies the painting quite faithfully, except for elimination of the dog and a right hand cropping out of the cedar trees.NotesThis view of Christ Church, Shrewsbury, depicts the landmark 1769 building after construction of a chancel recess on the left or east end in 1844, and before installation of stained glass windows in the large arched openings in 1867. The picket fence around the graveyard replaced an earlier board fence. In 1874, a clock tower was added at the right or west gable end, the cupola moved forward onto it, and the two entrances replaced by a single one in the base of the tower. The large oak tree survived well into the twentieth century.

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