Flora, Ceres, Pomona

These three panels were installed in 1919 in the overmantel of the fireplace in George Booth’s bedroom at Cranbrook House. From left to right, they depict three Greek goddesses associated with the cultivation of plants: Ceres, goddess of agriculture; Pomona, goddess of orchards; and Flora, goddess of flowers. The design may relate to the farm at Cranbrook, which was then still in operation; as head of the estate, George Booth oversaw agricultural work as well as the planting of the Cranbrook House gardens.

The painter of these panels, Corrado Scapecci, specialized in tempera and oil painting after the manner of Italian artists of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. After immigrating to America in the early 1900s, Scapecchi established a studio in New York, where he sold original artworks and copies of early Italian Renaissance paintings. He was noted for his skill in painting on wood panels, as seen here.

The panels themselves were carved by the studio of John Kirchmayer, a German-American woodcarver based in Boston, whose work ornaments many rooms of Cranbrook House. At George Booth’s request, the panels were sent to him in advance of the overmantel, to be painted before their installation.

Mariam Hale
2023-2025 Collections Fellow
Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research
April 2024

Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts (founded 1906)

Founded on June 26, 1906, the Detroit Society of Arts & Crafts provided an environment where artists, craftsmen, architects, and designers could share ideas and coordinate activities to raise the level of American craftsmanship. Out of their showroom, works by major craftsmen active in Europe and America were exhibited and sold. George Booth was not only one of the founders of the Detroit Society of Arts & Crafts, but also its first president.

The Society’s showroom operated from 1916, when it opened a new building on Watson Street in Detroit, until 1958, when the mission of the Society shifted toward design education (the Art School of the Society of Arts and Crafts had been established in 1926). George Booth worked closely with the Society’s Secretary Helen Plumb sourcing objects for display and sale in the showroom; George Booth also filled his home, Cranbrook House, with items he purchased or commissioned for the showroom. Beyond George Booth, Ellen and the entire Booth family patronized the Society’s showroom for gifts and furnishings for their respective homes. The Booth family continued support of the Society well into the second half of the 20th century, as it reincorporated as the Center for Creative Studies - College of Art and Design (1975 to 2001) and later the College for Creative Studies (2001-present).

Kevin Adkisson
Curator
Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research
November 2021