Images(2)

St. Peter's Church

Artist Carrie A. Bowne Swift

Periodca. 1880

MediumOil on abalone shell

Dimensions6.25 × 5.75 in. (15.9 × 14.6 cm)

InscribedInscribed on front, "St. Peter's Church / Freehold / N. J. / Sunset."

ClassificationsLandscapes & Still Life

Credit LineMuseum Collection

Object number1985.529

DescriptionView of a church building with two entrances on the gable end and four pointed Gothic arch windows along the side elevation. An octagonal cupola with a half-dome roof and weather vane sits on the west gable. A chimney appears at a mid point on the ridge line. The wood shingled structure is painted red, with light cream trim. It sits behind a picket fence and several trees which are in full leaf. They sky is left in the natural irridescence of the shell, although the artist did include a flock of birds in flight above the cupola.
Curatorial RemarksThis view of St. Peter's Church depicts the structure as it appeared between 1869 and 1878. Carrie A. Bowne Swift sometimes painted local subjects on shells, which she then presented as gifts to friends or sold as souvenirs. An 1880 article in the Monmouth Democrat noted that Mrs. Swift “has on exhibition for a few days at her residence on Court Street a number of beautiful landscapes painted on mother-of-pearl shells, which she has recently executed to fill a special order.” This example, which may be one of them, was painted on abalone (a type of mollusk). This view of St. Peter’s is similar to one Swift painted on metal, which also shows the structure flanked by tulip poplar trees on either side, along with a solitary tree silhouetted against the front of the building. Both images are similar to an illustration of St. Peter’s reproduced in Benson J. Lossing’s article, “The Battle of Monmouth Court-House,” published in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine in June 1878. NotesSt. Peter’s Episcopal Church is located at 31 Throckmorton Street in Freehold. Construction on the original structure began in 1771, after a design by Robert Smith (1722–1777), a well-known colonial architect from Philadelphia. However, with the impending war, work on the building was suspended by 1775, at which time it was an enclosed structure but still in an unfinished state. According to local lore, St. Peters’s Church served as the British Army’s field hospital during the Battle of Monmouth. When the fighting ended, forty-four sick and wounded soldiers are said to have remained there. Following the War of Independence, St. Peter’s was used as a storehouse by the Provincial Army and not returned to the congregation until the early 1790s. Construction was resumed and completed by 1797, its exterior covered with whitewash. The building was extensively renovated between 1838 and 1841. The church was painted Venetian red in 1869 and then gray with white trim during a major Gothic Revival remodeling in 1878–79. In 1921, St. Peter’s was painted white and it has remained that color to the present day.

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