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A Painter’s Trick
When visitors enter the Middle Kitchen at the Black House Museum, they see white plastered walls, a large fireplace for cooking, Colonial Revival kitchen furnishings, and an abundance of dark oak woodwork. But, is that woodwork really oak? On close examination, you will note that your eye has been tricked! In fact, the doors, wainscoting, mantle and other trim are painted to resemble oak. This “trompe l’oeil” technique, known as grain painting, was a centuries old decorating device revived during the Victorian era.
After John Black’s death in 1856, his widow Frances began a campaign to freshen up and remodel parts of the house. In the Middle Kitchen, she had a wall removed which eliminated a hallway which modified the use and the appearance of the room. She called in a local house painter, an artist really, and had him “grain” the woodwork in the room turning common wood into the highly fashionable wood of the time, oak.
The skilled painter was Isaac Frazier. Born in Deer Isle in 1806, Frazier lived a long and full life that took him to Boston in his youth, then to Otis, Maine and Ellsworth in the 1830s- 1860s. According to his obituary, Isaac served in the militia leading troops to northern Maine during the Aroostook War, was wounded during the Civil War battle of Chickahominy River in Virginia, returned to Ellsworth in 1862 and served in the state legislature before moving to Lynn, Massachusetts in 1866 where he established a sign and house painting business. Frazier died at age 89 in Massachusetts.
Graining, or “faux bois”, was done to change the appearance of common woods such as pine or spruce to more expensive woods such as mahogany, oak, walnut or rosewood. Similarly, some wood trim was painted to look like marble or other decorative stone. Painters used a variety of tools such as combs, special brushes, quills, feathers and rags to complete the illusion. Woodlawn was certainly not the only fine home in Ellsworth to receive this treatment. If you have information about other 19th century homes here that are known to have been painted in this way we would like to hear from you. Email info@woodlawnellsworth.org - thanks!
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