Hannah Cohoon

Hannah Cohoon (February 1, 1788 – January 7, 1864) was an American painter born in Williamstown, Massachusetts and a member of Hancock Shaker Village.

The subject matter and form of the instruments' images had been prohibited for many years as a threat to the purity of the sect.

But a celestial content tempered and made useful this potentially radical art.The profound experience resulted in Shakers expressing the "gifts" received from Spirit in drawings, messages and songs.

Of about 200 surviving gift drawings, most were made by women who lived in Hancock Shaker Village, Massachusetts, or Lebanon, New York.

One example is Gift Drawing: A Reward of True Faithfulness from Mother Lucy to Eleanor Potter by Polly Ann (Jane) Reed (1818-1881).

They generally included many small emblems,[2][14] considered "wildly extravagant by Shaker standards," such as treasure chests, heavenly mansions, golden chariots, flowers and fruits.

[13] and included written messages of friendship or reverence,[2][14] with calligraphic intricacies, resembling fine lacework.

The Era of Manifestations ended when Shaker community members became embarrassed by the "emotional excesses and mystical expressions of this period.

She used thick paint in primary or secondary colors that created an impasto texture, using bold, expressive brushstrokes.

[15] Hannah Harrison Cohoon died in Hancock, Massachusetts, on January 7, 1864, and is buried in the family cemetery of the Church.

An image of Cohoon's Tree of Life appeared in a December 1945 Antiques magazine article by Edward Deming Andrews.

[21] The Whitney Museum of Art held exhibited four of Cohoon's drawings in the "American Folk Painters of Three Centuries" show in 1980.

[22] Her works were exhibited at the "Shaker — Masterworks of Utilitarian Design" show at the Katonah Gallery, New York, in 1983.