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This view of the barn complex no longer exists, although its handsome exterior has been maintained. The viewer is presumably sitting in a rowboat or canoe on Lake Katharine, a manmade sixteen-acre lake that over years of silting from run-off has become a wetland. The buildings sit on a knoll above the lake in the foreground surrounded by trees and bushes, which are reflected in the water.
A second watercolor of the south façade of Reynolda is the same size and is also signed and dated 1922. Presumably they were painted as a pair.
Since Graham knew Katharine Smith Reynolds Johnston, Charles and Mary Babcock, and Richard J. (Dick) Reynolds, Jr., it is probable that the pair of watercolors was a personal gift to a member of the Reynolds family. However, there is no documentation to indicate to whom or when they were gifted. The Museum’s first hospitality director, E. Carter, believed Graham gave them to Katharine. Charles Frost, who lived with the artist, said that she gave them to Dick Reynolds, a close friend of her son John who was Dick’s best man when he married his first wife, Elizabeth “Blitz” McCaw Dillard in 1933.
In the early 1960s, Charles H. Babcock (1899–1967) gave the house and its contents, presumably including this watercolor, to the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. The house was then incorporated as a museum and collection—Reynolda House, Inc.—on December 18, 1964, with the signing of the charter at its first board meeting. The museum first opened to the public in September 1965.
ProvenanceFrom 1964
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, acquired in 1964. [1]
Notes:
[1] In the early 1960s Charles H. Babcock (1899-1967) gave the house and its contents to the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. The house was then incorporated as a museum and collection (Reynolda House, Inc.) on December 18, 1964 with the signing of the charter at its first board meeting. The museum first opened to the public in September 1965.
Exhibition History
DepartmentHistoric House
Reynolda Dairy
Artist
Margaret Nowell Graham
(1868 - 1942)
Date1922
Mediumwatercolor on paper
DimensionsFrame: 14 7/8 × 17 5/8 in. (37.8 × 44.8 cm)
Image (visible): 8 1/2 × 11 1/4 in. (21.6 × 28.6 cm)
SignedMargaret Nowell Graham.
Credit LineReynolda Estate
CopyrightPublic Domain
Object number1966.2.101
DescriptionReynolda Dairy illustrates how the architecture of the Reynolda Village buildings was accorded equal status with that of the family residence designed by architect Charles Barton Keen. Whether devoted to farm operations or residential concerns, all of the estate’s buildings share the attractive rock foundations comprised of stones dug up from the property, gleaming white stucco walls, and green terra-cotta tile roofing. This view of the barn complex no longer exists, although its handsome exterior has been maintained. The viewer is presumably sitting in a rowboat or canoe on Lake Katharine, a manmade sixteen-acre lake that over years of silting from run-off has become a wetland. The buildings sit on a knoll above the lake in the foreground surrounded by trees and bushes, which are reflected in the water.
A second watercolor of the south façade of Reynolda is the same size and is also signed and dated 1922. Presumably they were painted as a pair.
Since Graham knew Katharine Smith Reynolds Johnston, Charles and Mary Babcock, and Richard J. (Dick) Reynolds, Jr., it is probable that the pair of watercolors was a personal gift to a member of the Reynolds family. However, there is no documentation to indicate to whom or when they were gifted. The Museum’s first hospitality director, E. Carter, believed Graham gave them to Katharine. Charles Frost, who lived with the artist, said that she gave them to Dick Reynolds, a close friend of her son John who was Dick’s best man when he married his first wife, Elizabeth “Blitz” McCaw Dillard in 1933.
In the early 1960s, Charles H. Babcock (1899–1967) gave the house and its contents, presumably including this watercolor, to the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. The house was then incorporated as a museum and collection—Reynolda House, Inc.—on December 18, 1964, with the signing of the charter at its first board meeting. The museum first opened to the public in September 1965.
ProvenanceFrom 1964
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, acquired in 1964. [1]
Notes:
[1] In the early 1960s Charles H. Babcock (1899-1967) gave the house and its contents to the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. The house was then incorporated as a museum and collection (Reynolda House, Inc.) on December 18, 1964 with the signing of the charter at its first board meeting. The museum first opened to the public in September 1965.
Exhibition History
Status
Not on view