Object Details
maker
Loucks, Jane Elizabeth
Description
By the 1840s a new technique [in the field] of needlepoint known as Berlin wool work was the rage. It arose in Germany at the beginning of the 19th century. New dyes became available and brightly colored wools could be worked in tent stitch on canvas. The patterns were painted by hand on “point paper,” which today would be called graph paper. Jane’s piece is an example of this technique.
This large rectangular canvas work piece depicts the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. The biblical account is found in Genesis 22:1-14. Abraham is standing clothed in flowing robes girded at the waist, with a dagger hanging at his left side. He gestures toward the sky with his left hand, and his right hand is over Isaac’s face. A lamb is in the bushes at the right side of the picture and smoke is coming from a brazier in the left corner. The picture is worked on penelope canvas ground, 9/18 threads per inch, with Berlin wool in cross stitch. The faces, hands, and feet are done in petit point.
Jane Elizabeth Loucks was born in 1835 to John and Desdemonia Marsh Loucks in Sharon, New York. She married Joseph Warren Hastings on February 16, 1871, in Manhattan, New York. They moved to Illinois and had one daughter, Dena. See her other pieces; Mary Queen of Scots and The Ascension of Jesus.
Location
Currently not on view
associated date
1961
ID Number
TE.T11105.01
catalog number
T11105
accession number
238291
Object Name
embroidered picture
Other Terms
embroidered picture; Circa 1850
Physical Description
penelope canvas 9/18 (overall material)
wool (overall material)
reds (overall color)
blues (overall color)
greens (overall color)
gold (overall color)
brown (overall color)
black (overall color)
berlin woolwork (overall style)
grospoint is cross stitched (joint piece production method or technique)
petit point: half cross and cross stitch (joint piece production method or technique)
petit point face, legs, hands, chest (joint piece production method or technique)
embroidery (overall production method/technique)
glass (frame material)
Measurements
average spatial: 24 in x 30 3/4 in; x 60.96 cm x 78.105 cm
See more items in
Home and Community Life: Textiles
Embroidered Pictures
Textiles
Data Source
National Museum of American History
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_1148279