Dyer-Morrison House
About This Tour
The unsigned stair hall murals of the Dyer-Morrison House are excellent examples of murals attributed to John Avery. On this tour, you’ll find common Avery motifs, such as fingerprint grapes and curlicues, and whimsical vignettes like a pig in a tree!
The Dyer-Morrison House is believed to have been built for Samuel Dyer, a Baptist minister, between 1839 and 1848. The entrance door surround is a recent addition to the front facade.
The Dyer-Morrison House
The Dyer-Morrison House was built by Samuel B. Dyer (1779-1846) in Deerfield, New Hampshire sometime between 1839 and 1848. Dyer purchased the land from Dudley Tucker in 1839 which, according to historical records, had no buildings on it at the time of the sale. Dyer, a minister in the local Baptist Church, was a prominent citizen who married three times. In 1848, Dyer’s son, Joseph, sold the home out of the family to Isaac Morrison and his mother, Anna. The deed from this sale records the existence of buildings on the property — thereby dating the construction of the home between 1839-48.
The exterior of the house has a symmetrical but simple facade, and the extant entry door is a recently installed feature. Like many homes from this time period, the main entry door opens to a center hall with a staircase that leads to an upstairs hallway — a common space to have muraled.
This painted signature on an attic wall and the motifs used in the murals in the rooms below suggest John Avery was the artist who painted the Dyer-Morrison House murals.
About the Artist
A significant element in this house gives insight into who painted these walls. On the third floor, which is mostly unfinished except for a dormer with three plastered walls, there is a painted signature that reads “John”. This signature leads many scholars to believe that the murals in the stair hall below were painted by John Avery. It is thought that Avery slept up here, perhaps while he was completing the murals.
John Avery (1790-1871) painted murals in houses all over New Hampshire. He was born in Deerfield, New Hampshire and his connections there likely led to his work in the Dyer-Morrison House. In 1828, Avery married Lucinda Osgood and together they had two daughters and three sons — all three of their male children would later follow in their father’s footsteps. Murals done in Avery’s style are referred to as the Avery School. Avery School murals often possess a sense of whimsy — here, Avery painted amusing details including a tiny pig standing on a tree branch.
Mural painting was not Avery’s only way of making money — an 1849 mercantile union directory and an 1850 census list him as a cabinetmaker and furniture manufacturer, while two later censuses in 1860 and in 1870, as well as his death record, list him as a painter. In addition to murals, it is believed that Avery provided his clients with additional painted finishes such as graining and marbling. While not now evident in the Dyer-Morrison House, such finishes can be seen in the Hersey-Whitten House in Tuftonboro, New Hampshire (link to museum tour), and the Captain Enoch Remick House in Tamworth, New Hampshire (link to museum tour).
About the Art
The downstairs murals exhibit many Avery School motifs including delicate blades of grass, horizontal bands of shrubs, puzzle-piece hills, fingerprint grapes, and curlicues. Avery’s trees — sometimes leaning in odd directions or curling unnaturally — frame the doorways and windows. While some Avery-attributed walls include detailed village scenes, exemplified by those of the Hersey-Whitten House, the walls of the Dyer-Morrison House depict a mostly rustic landscape of trees and mountains.
The treatment of the trees can provide a clue to the artist's identity. John Avery often painted a tree trunk in the corner of the room, with the branches spreading out across the two adjacent walls.
The murals in the hall follow the rise of the stair. Horizontal bands of shrubs and a background of mountains are motifs often found in John Avery’s murals. Attempts to protect the murals with shellac caused the yellowing seen here.