Maria Howard Weeden (Huntsville, Alabama, 1847-1905), watercolor on card landscape depicting a curving road with sheep walking or reclining along its side, with two figures and hills in the background. Signed lower left "Howard Weeden". Card: 8-1/4" x 10-7/8". Matted: 11" x 14", Narrow giltwood frame: 11-3/4" x 15". Biography (courtesy the Encyclopedia of Alabama): Maria Howard Weeden was educated at the Huntsville Female Seminary and by well known Huntsville portrait painter William Frye. She gained international recognition for her portraits of formerly enslaved freedpeople; she also published four books of poetry with accompanying illustrations. Her preferred medium of painting was watercolor. A combination of her extreme nearsightedness and using brushes of only three hairs for painting allowed her to capture delicate details. Weeden's friend Elizabeth Price, who owned a music studio in Nashville, displayed and sold her paintings there. The home Weeden shared with her family is now a historic house in Huntsville, Alabama. Provenance: a Nashville, Tennessee collection. Condition: Mat is glued to the card; 2 small (1/2" or less) areas of shallow, partial loss to card margin on back, each within 1/2" of edge; area of loss to mat, light overall toning.