Object of the Day: An Antique Watercolor of Burrington Churchyard

The Thirteenth Century Church of the Holy Trinity in Burrington in England’s North Somerset has served as the site for many a prayer service, wedding and funeral. Its churchyard is the burial place of many generations of families and, also, seems to have been the artistic inspiration for one early Twentieth Century painter.


This watercolor painting of a grave marked by a large, stone Celtic cross is inscribed, “Burrington Churchyard, 1905,” followed by the artist’s initials. This painting was recently found at an antique store in North Texas. In its original fame, it is backed with wood. When the board was removed from the reverse, we found that the watercolor paper had been affixed to the mat-board with carefully cut and pasted portions of pages from a religious text. Pink with age, the strips of paper were clearly printed with psalms. This leads me to believe that the painting was created by someone associated with the church who used the materials at hand to assemble to piece.