Description:
Square fragment of heavy blue linen marked "EM 08" for Ellen Miller (1854-1929). Miller moved to Deerfield from Hatfield, Mass., with her family in 1893. She studied art at the New York Academy of Design, and co-founded, with Margaret Whiting (1860-1946), the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework. In addition to her embroidery work with the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework, Ellen Miller also experimented with resist-dyed printed, stenciled, and painted designs. Using natural dyes, she produced smaller domestic textiles such as table mats, decorative and functional accessories placed on flat furniture surfaces. Unlike needlework produced by the Society, Miller’s printed and painted designs took inspiration less from the past and more from contemporary art movements, including Art Nouveau. This piece has 8 botehs in purple and black similar to paisley print with designs inside each and between curves of botehs and two finished edges. The technique represents an experiment in calico printing, using mordants for changes in color, whch never seems to have been incorporated in the commercial work of the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework.
Label Text:
Table Mat, Ellen Miller (1854-1929), Deerfield, Massachusetts, 1908. Signed “EM 08.” Blue (indigo-dyed) plain weave linen, mordant and dye block printed or stenciled design. Gift of the Estate of Margaret Miller, 1994.023.22
In addition to her embroidery work with the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework, Ellen Miller (1854-1929) also experimented with resist-dyed printed, stenciled, and painted designs. Using natural dyes, she produced smaller domestic textiles such as table mats, decorative and functional accessories placed on flat furniture surfaces. Unlike needlework produced by the Society, Miller’s printed and painted designs took inspiration less from the past and more from contemporary art movements, including Art Nouveau.
Subjects:
Textile fabrics; Linen Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+94.023.22 |
