The Lily Pond

Artist / Maker Hattie Fitchpatrick (American, 1840s-)

Datec. 1900

OriginUSA

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions71 × 47 in. (180.3 × 119.4 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Phil Allen. In the Farm House Museum Collection, Farm House Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object number74.29.1

Status

On view

Collections

CultureAmerican

Label TextFrom the University Museums Collections Handbook, vol. 2, 2025: Hattie Fitchpatrick’s The Lily Pond depicts the serene image of a young girl dressed in white, cooling her feet in the water of a woodland pond. The painting represents sentimental Victorian era ideals of childhood, evoking images of purity, beauty, and virtue. The girl’s white dress contrasts with the dark woods around her, emphasizing her youthful innocence. According to one theory, this painting imitates an original painting used in a magazine advertisement in the late 1880s. It was customary practice in the Victorian Era for ladies to paint their own “master copies” of famous works. It is possible this painting was accomplished in that manner. By creating master copies, aspiring female artists could study the styles and techniques of the Old Masters, and later popular artists, to develop their own artistic style, especially if they did not have the opportunity for formal training. Another example of the technique of master copying is the 1890s Reclining Mary Magdalene Reading in Wilderness originally by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Italian, 1708−1787), also located in the Farm House Museum. The 1870 Census record lists Hattie as age 27, born in New York, a house keeper living in Nevada township, Story County. The Lily Pond was donated to University Museums by Mrs. Phil Allen, a relative of the ﬁrst family to live in the Farm House.

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