Print Work Mourning Embroidery Dedicated to Major Green
1799
Physical Qualities
Silk embroidery threads, paint, graphite, on silk ground with bast fiber canvas backing, Framed (Original): 14 3/8 × 12 3/8 × 1 1/2 in. (36.5 × 31.4 × 3.8 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Donald Houghton Hooker, Baltimore, in Memory of her Mother, Mrs. James D. Harrison
Object Number
1985.111
Rectangular mourning embroidery of "print work" type. The design consists of a young woman with long wavy hair dressed in long, neoclassical style dress with dark cumberbund leaning on a tomb beneath a willow tree holding a handkerchief in her hand. The tomb bears an urn, which is inscribed with initials "T.G." and stands on a square plinth inscribed to the memory of Major Green. The work is painted and drawn on the silk ground and then embroidered with black threads in shot "stipple" stitches to approximate a printed image.
The silk and its lining were fitted on a stretcher and framed with a black and gold églomisé glass mat which features a single 1/4" wide gold outline around the oval opening and gilded corner ornaments. The fframe appears to be of Federal era and original along with the mat.
Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1985; Mrs. Donald Houghton Hooker, Baltimore, MD.
Anita Jones, Baltimore, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Jean and Allan Berman Textile Gallery, "Mournful Maidens: Love and Loss in American Embroidery," (September 9, 2009-February 21, 2010), no catalog.
Witty, Merrill. "In Loving Memory," Mid-Atlantic Country, July 1991, p. 42, illus. (Identified incorrectly as Hicks memorial.)
Inscribed: Drawn on urn atop tomb in script letters: "T. G." Drawn on front face of plinth part of tomb in block letters upper and lower case: "Majr. Green /obit 2 Feb/ 1797."