Focus on The Examination of a Witch (painting) and analyze the Inspiration.
At the first exhibition of the painting in New York in 1848, T. H. Matteson exhibited an earlier version of this painting, using  as his inspiration a quotation from John Greenleaf Whittier's book Supernaturalism of New England. Matteson quoted Whittier, "Mary Fisher, a young girl, was seized upon by Deputy Governor Bellingham in the absence of Governor Endicott, and shamefully stripped for the purpose of ascertaining whether she was a witch, with the Devil's mark upon her.". Richard Bellingham left office, in 1672, adding doubt, about the year of 1692. Whittier's entire quote follows:Cotton Mather attributes the plague of witchcraft in New England in about an equal degree to the Quakers and Indians. The first of the sect who visited Boston, Ann Austin and Mary Fisher, the latter a young girl, were seized upon by Deputy Governor Bellingham in the absence of Gov. Endicott, and shamefully stripped naked for the purpose of ascertaining whether they were witches, with the devil’s mark on them. In 1662 Elizabeth Horton and Joan Broksop, two venerable preachers of the sect, were arrested in Boston, charged by Governor Endicott with being witches, and carried two days' journey into the woods, and left to the tender mercies of Indians and wolves.
T. H. Matteson Mary Fisher stripped shamefully Deputy Governor Bellingham Devil's mark Governor Endicott Richard Bellingham Cotton Mather witch Quaker John Greenleaf Whittier Quakers Ann Austin painting John Greenleaf Whittier's