Embroidered Mourning Picture

Periodca. 1839

MediumPlied silk thread, watercolor, and gouache on silk with linen backing

DimensionsOval Sight: 14.38 × 11.5 in. (36.5 × 29.2 cm)

ClassificationsNeedlework

Credit LineGift of Mrs. William M. Kissam, 1974

Object number1974.21

DescriptionA pictorial embroidery on an off-white silk ground fabric, worked within an oval with plied silk thread in dark green, medium green, light green, pale blue, medium brown, light brown, golden tan, and off white. The stitches are varied and include surface satin, seed, chain, and stem. In addition to the embroidered areas of the piece, the central figure's hands and face are painted in watercolor and gouache over an opaque gesso applied directly onto the silk ground fabric. The scene, worked in a large oval, depicts a seated woman in a placid landscape. The female figure poses with her left elbow propped on her thigh, her cheek resting against her left hand, while her right arm hangs down, holding what might be a hat or bonnet. The woman is dressed in what appears to be a jacket and petticoat, draped at the neck, with long sleeves revealing her wrists. Her dark brown hair is dressed in ringlets and worn long and loose. She gazes directly at the viewer, while at her feet stands a small spaniel type dog. Immediately behind the woman to the left is a large willow tree, with several branches visible above. The leaves are worked in small chain stitches, interspersed with tiny seed stitches, giving an airy appearance to the leaves. A deep green vine hangs from the trunk, with what appear to be white moonflower or morning glory flowers in bloom. A small willow sapling grows in the lower left foreground. Additional willows bend and sway in the background at right. A portion of a small fence is visible at right. In the foreground, at the feet of the resting woman, is what appears to be a still pond with a few scattered waterlilies along the bottom right. The sky above the figure and scene is handpainted in blue and white watercolor directly on the silk ground.
Curatorial RemarksOne of two needlework pictures completed by Catharine Schanck (1825 - 1904) in the Association's collection, this graceful and elegant oval depicts Maria, a character in Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy. Published in 1768 just three weeks before the English author's death, the book was part novel, part travel journal and was wildly popular with international audiences. The charming descriptions of Sterne's journey helped launch travel writing as a favored literary genre during the second half of the eighteenth century. Sterne described visiting "...poor Maria sitting under a poplar...with her elbow in her lap, and her head leaning on one side within her hand...a small brook ran at the foot of the tree...she had got a little dog...which she kept tied by a string to her girdle." Maria was presented as a romantic, sorrowing figure, mourning the loss of her beloved father, driven insane by grief. Many versions of Maria appear in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century schoolgirl needlework pictures. This work is undated. It is possible that Catharine completed this piece before she tackled the more challenging and much larger picture of "Balshazzar's Feast" in 1839, most likely under the instruction of a needlework instructress at the Middletown Point Academy in Matawan. For further information about the academy, see the entry for the biblical feast scene (accession number 1991.3) and a pencil sketch of the building also owned by the Association (accession number 2017.547). NotesCatherine Lafayette Schanck was born on 23 July 1825, a daughter of DeLafayette Schanck (1781 - 1862) and Eleanor Conover (1787 - 1873) from what is now Matawan, Monmouth County. On 2 April 1844, Catherine married Uriah Smock (1815 - 1881). They became the parents of at least two daughters, and lived on Vanderberg Road in Marlboro. Catherine Smock died on 25 January 1904 at the age of seventy-eight, and was interred in the prominent family plot at Old Brick Reformed Church in Marlboro. See accession number 1991.3 for a much larger embroidered picture by Catherine Schanck Smock dated 1839 of Belshazzar's Feast. That entry also contains a more detailed biographical sketch of the embroiderer. Pastel portraits of Catherine Smock's parents, DeLafayette and Eleanor Conover Schanck, by itinerant New Jersey artist Micah Williams were donated to the Association in 1940 by Mrs. J. Amory Haskell (see accession numbers 1509 and 1510).

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