Louise B. Wheatley
Seed Manta
1998
Scroll
Louise B. Wheatley
Seed Manta
1998
Physical Qualities
Wool, linen, silk, cotton, cashmere, musk ox down, hemp, alpaca hair, llama hair, ramie, cat hair, synthetic copper thread, 32-1/4 x 46 in. (81.9 x 116.9 cm.)
Credit Line
Lilian Sarah Greif Bequest Fund
Object Number
1999.162
A woman's wearing blanket of plain-woven wool ground of natural color with two polychrome tapestry woven vertical strips depicting 34 different seeds or seed groupings. In the center of the blanket is a tapestry-woven polycrhome roundel with various root plants depicted. The tapestry woven roundel has a double warp of wool and wefts of wool, silk, cat hair, and linen. The tapestry woven strips have a linen warp with wefts of wool, linen, silk, cotton, cashmere, musk ox down, hemp, alpaca hair, ramie, and llama hair. All of the fibers used in the weaving were hand-dyed with natural dyes (grown and gathered by the artist) including:lichen, madder, indigo, cochineal, log wood, weld, Queen Anne's Lace, coreopsis, sumac, and cutch) as well as hand-spun by the artist. The colors used are tans, browns, creams, blues, greens, purples, corals, pinks, yellows, greys, maroon, and black.
The long tapestry woven strips were woven separately and hand stitched to the plain-woven sections of the blanket. The roundel was tapestry woven into the center of the plain woven center section.
The side edges of the blanket are selvages and the top and bottom edges are turned under and sewn for a finished edge.
Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 1999; Louise Wheatley (b. 1947), Manchester, NH.
Anita Jones, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Timeless Weft: Ancient Tapestries and the Art of Louise B. Wheatley, February 1–July 30, 2017.
James Abbott, Evergreen Museum and Library,The Johns Hopkins University, Batlimore Maryland,"Intimate Earth: The Art of Louise Wheatley,"October 19, 2011-January 29, 2012.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, permanent collection rotation, 2002.
James Abbott, Evergreen Museum and Library,The Johns Hopkins University, Batlimore Maryland,"Intimate Earth: The Art of Louise Wheatley,"October 19, 2011-January 29, 2012.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, permanent collection rotation, 2002.
Jones, Anita, "Louise Wheatley," in Intimate Earth: The Art of Louise Wheatley," James Archer Abbott (ed.), Baltimore: Evergreen Museum & Library, The Johns Hopkins University, 2011, pp. 7-8, illus. p. 6.