Derby School
Rural Landscape
1794-1804
Scroll
Derby School
Rural Landscape
1794-1804
Physical Qualities
Silk ground, silk embroidery threads, cotton backing, watercolor, jute laces, Framed (Possibly original ): 15 1/4 × 21 1/2 × 1 1/4 in. (38.7 × 54.6 × 3.2 cm.)
Sight: 13 3/8 × 19 3/4 in. (34 × 50.2 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. Francis White, from the Collection of Mrs. Miles White, Jr.
Object Number
1973.76.300
This remarkable embroidered landscape depicts rural pastures, a distant cityscape, and ships on the waterway in between. Farmers load hay into a horse-drawn wagon, while dogs, sheep, and birds populate the land. The piece is worked primarily in satin stitches. However, the sky and many other parts of the scene are not embroidered. The sails of the ships are simply outlined with black thread, while the dogs, bird, horses, and the faces of the farmers are drawn on the silk and padded. Similar scenes are identified
as being from the Derby Academy of Hingham, Massachusetts, but this is impossible to confirm due to the lack of a signature, dates, or provenance (record of ownership).
Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1973; Nancy Brewster (Mrs. Frances White) by inheritance; Virginia Purviance Bonsal (Mrs. Miles White, Jr.).
Lessons Learned: American Schoolgirl Embroidery
Textiles American Needlework
William Voss Elder III, BMA, 'American Folk Art From The Baltimore Museum of Art and Local Collections,' April 4 - June 18, 1978, p. 18, no. 124.
Solis-Cohen, Lita. 'The picture seems rosy for American folk art.' The [Baltimore] Sun.(Sunday March 9, 1986), Antiques section, page unknown.
Ring, Betty. Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers and Pictorial Needlework, 1650-1850. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1993, Vol. I, pp. 152-157, figs. 171, 172, and 175. (Derby School, Hingham).
Ring, Betty. Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers and Pictorial Needlework, 1650-1850. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1993, Vol. I, pp. 152-157, figs. 171, 172, and 175. (Derby School, Hingham).
