Picture, Needlework

Title:

Cottage by Lake

Object Name:

Picture, Needlework

Object ID:

1907.007.06

Creator:

Rowe, Olivia (1803-1875); Lothrop, Stillman (1780-1853)Manufacturer

Place of Origin:

Exeter, NH

Date:

1818

Description:

Needlework and watercolor picture. One of a pair of en grisaille landscapes, by Olivia Rowe (1803-1875), Exeter, NH, 1818. Scene of a stone house with a porch across the front on the shore of a lake, with a small sailboat on the lake, and a man wearing a farmer's frock holding a cane and seated woman with a basket on the shore by the house. The image, which is probably modeled after a contemporary engraving, is worked on cream silk in ink wash in shades of gray, and very fine silk embroidery in shades of beige to create an "en grisaille" effect. The silk embroidery includes closely worked seed stitches to create the leaves of the trees, along with straight and long-and-short stitches. The image is signed in pencil at the bottom: "Olivia / O. Rowe April 29th 1818." There are also some practice (?) stitches to the left of the inscription. The silk is tacked to a wooden board, which bears a typed label giving the provenance (see 1907.007.07 for transcription), and also a label from the framer: "S. Lothrop No. 71, Market Street Manufactures looking glasses Upon an Extensive Scale: Some of them are Very Large and Ornamented in the NEWEST STYLE Also Elegant ENGLISH MIRRORS and DRESS GLASSES of the First Quality and a large assortment of low priced GLASSES, wholesale and retail for the country trade, all of which are of the best workmanship and very low for cash only. Old glasses new Silvered and Framed, Portraits, Needle-work, Pictures &c. Framed Distant Ordered Faithfully Executed." Black (painted on glass) mat with gold interior border. Framed: concave profile gilded gesso with twisted rope strip in center.

Material:

Textile
Silk

Dimensions:

H-9.75 W-12.5 inches

Provenance:

Donor is son of Olivia Rowe, the maker of the work. There are two pictures done by Olive Rowe (1907.007.06 and 1907.007.07); a label on the back of one picture reads: "These two specimens of needlework were made by Miss Olive Rowe of Exeter, New Hampshire about the year 1819. She married Hon. John Sullivan, Attorney General of New Hampshire. Her children were George S. Sullivan, Esq., Edward Sullivan, Esq., and Dr. John Sullivan, the donor; being the fourth generation in direct descent from the Irish immigrant John Sullivan."

Credit Line:

Gift of John Sullivan

People:

Rowe, Olivia (1803-1875), Sullivan, John (1800-1862), Lothrop, Stillman (1780-1853), Sullivan, John (1840-1908)

Subjects:

Cottages, Lakes & ponds