Frances Mecia Campbell, Mrs. Saunders and Miss Beach's Academy, and others
Telemachus and Mentor in the Island of Calipso
1807
Scroll
- Maker: Frances Mecia Campbell
- School: Mrs. Saunders and Miss Beach’s Academy
- Artist: Angelica Kauffmann
- Artist: Francesco Bartolozzi
- Framer Roxbury, Massachusetts: John Doggett
Telemachus and Mentor in the Island of Calipso
1807
Physical Qualities
Silk ground, silk embroidery threads, watercolor, 18 x 20 1/2 x 2 1/2 in. (45.7 x 52.1 x 6.4 cm.)
Credit Line
Purchase with exchange funds from Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James R. Herbert Boone; Gift of Maria Lovell Eaton and Mrs. Charles R. Weld; Gift of J. Gilman D'Arcy Paul; Bequest of John Henry Scarff; Gift of Florence Hendler Trupp; and Gift of the Women's Eastern Shore Society
Object Number
1989.352
Judith Foster Saunders (1772–1841) and Clementina Beach (1774–1855) operated one of the most fashionable girls’ schools in New England. The elegant silk embroideries from their academy featured biblical, literary, and classical themes. Frances Mecia Campbell found her subject in the novel The Adventures of Telemachus: The Son of Ulysses by François Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, published in 1699 and reissued in 1717. Her embroidery depicts the episode in which Telemachus and his trusted companion Mentor, in search of the Greek hero Ulysses, are shipwrecked and detained by the goddess Calypso and her nymphs. The image was copied from an engraving—perhaps found in the extensive library and print collection advertised by the school. The figures may have been painted by Clementina Beach herself, an accomplished woman who studied with the prominent portrait artist Gilbert Stuart.
Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 1989; Stephen and Carol Huber, Inc., by purchase, East Lyme, CT; Christie's, New York, NY June 4, 1988
Anita Jones, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Lessons Learned: American Schoolgirl Embroideries," November 23, 2014-May 10, 2015.
Anita Jones, BMA, 'The Accomplished Stitch: American Samplers and Silk Embroideries from the Collection, May 11-July 20, 1997, no catalog, checklist, no. 15.
Wendy Cooper, BMA, "Classical Taste in America", 1800-1840, June 27-September 26, 1993.
"Important American Furniture, Silver, Folk Art and Decorative Arts," Christie's, New York, May 28-June 3, 1988.
Anita Jones, BMA, 'The Accomplished Stitch: American Samplers and Silk Embroideries from the Collection, May 11-July 20, 1997, no catalog, checklist, no. 15.
Wendy Cooper, BMA, "Classical Taste in America", 1800-1840, June 27-September 26, 1993.
"Important American Furniture, Silver, Folk Art and Decorative Arts," Christie's, New York, May 28-June 3, 1988.
"Important American Furniture, Silver, Folk Art and Decorative Arts," Christie's, NY (TOWER-6622), lot 107, p. 63, ill.
Wendy A. Cooper. Classical Taste in America 1800-1840. Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Museum of Art; New York: Abbeville Press, 1993, page 257.
Andre, Linda, and Jessica Skwire Routhier, eds. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Celebrating A Museum. Baltimore, Maryland: Baltimore Museum of Art, 2014.
