Description:
Unfinished pictorial needlework depicting The Death of Absalom (sometimes known as The Hanging of Absalom). Wrought by Lois Breck (1738-1789), who was born in Springfield, Massachusetts and attended a school in Boston (possibly Elizabeth Murray's school) where she worked this needlework and watercolor image depicting scenes from the Old Testament story of Absalom, son of King David. This is one of only about five known similar examples, all probably worked in Boston. A possible print source for this pictorial needlework is by J. Stuart, from Samuel Westley's A History of the Old and New Testament attempted in Verse, published in London in 1704. On June 16, 1755, Springfield merchant Josiah Dwight recorded breck's father, Reverend Robert Breck, purchasing "4 Hanks Thread" for 10 shillings, "1 Hank" for 4 shillings, and "50 needles Silk [for silk embroidery]" for 6 shillings 3 pence. This fact suggests that that women in the Breck household continued to embroider; perhaps even Lis Breck herself continued to work on this or another embroidery project. Lois was the daughter of Rev. Robert Breck (1713-1784) and Eunice Brewer Beck (1707-1767). Rev. Breck was a minister who trained at Harvard. In 1734, after serving as a minister in Connecticut, Breck was chosen to lead the First Church of Springfield, a position he held for 48 years. Shortly after his move to Springfield, however, Breck had to defend himself against accusations of Arminian sympathies. Influenced by the Dutch Reform Church, Arminianism believed that man was responsible for his own Salvation, and not a preordained plan by God. Either through his training at Harvard or just for the simple fact that he wanted his daughter to attend a prominent school in an urban area, Breck sent his daughter to Boston, possibly at the school taught by Elizabeth Murray. Lois appears to have abandoned her formal education when she married Rev. Josiah Whitney, formerly of Pomfret, Connecticut, in 1756.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2013.27 |
