Description:
Framed needlework picture of "The Reclining Shepherdess" in wool and silk embroidery (executed in tent stitch) on on a plain linen ground; a style generally known today as canvaswork. The picture depicts a landscape scene with a young woman sitting resting her head on her hand under a tree with a young man holding out a parrot-like bird in his left hand and a hat in his right as he stands next to her, dogs, sheep and stag, rabbit, and duck around them, and a large two-story house in the background. This work and the related "Fishing Lady" embroideries are both derived from English prints although simpler than English pictorials embroideries of the first half of the 18th century. There was a large group of canvas-work pictures embroidered in Boston in the mid 18th century by the daughters of prominent and prosperous New England families. The earliest dated example in the group was worked in 1746 by Priscilla Allen of Falmouth, Maine. The picures are all meticulously worked in tent stitch on fine linen canvas and are linked together by a number of characteristic motifs which are repeated many times, often rearranged within each picture in fresh and individual ways. Motifs, some of which were also used in more traditional samplers made as late as 1800, include the reclining shepherdess with a spotted dog at her side, nestling sheep, distinctive trees, foliate designs filling the right side of the picture, and two-story house with chimney and side pavillions in the background. The formulaic shading of the ladies skirt, the arrangement and execution of the animals, and the distant house suggest that the girls who worked on these pictures lived for a time in Boston and attended one of the boarding schools run by women who taught embroidery of various types, often in their homes. One of these was Mrs. Susannah Hiller Condy (1686-1747) who advertised in the "Boston News-Letter" in 1738, "All sort of beuatiful Figures on Canvas, for Tent-Stick; the Patterns from London, but drawn by her much cheaper than English drawing." Mrs Condy operated a school for young ladies from 1742-1747 and continued to sell needlework patterns for "Pocket-Books, House-Wives, Screens, Pictures, Chimney-Pieces, Escretoires,etc....for Tent-Stitch...." After Condy's death in 1747 , her sister-in-law Abigail Hillier took over the instruction at the school. Embroideries such as this were a symbol of success and refinement, and were prized possessions prominently displayed by the family. Northampton Historical Society has a similar needlework picture done by Esther Stoddard (1738-1816), the daughter of John Stoddard (1681-1748) of Northampton. There is a strong tradition that Esther and her two sisters, Prudence (1734-1822) and Mary (1732-1812), were sent "to Boston on horseback to seek an education" after their father's death in 1748. The frame and glass may be original to the piece.
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