1 needlework picture : wool ; image 46 x 59 cm, in frame 61 x 74 cm
Collection:
Rare Books and Manuscripts
Copyright Status:
Copyright Not Evaluated
Related Content:
View catalog record for John Dixon's mezzotint reproduction of A Tigress
http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/2069843
Classification:
Visual Materials
Notes:
Mary Linwood (1756-1845) was the most renowned practitioner of the technique known as "needlepainting." Linwood's needleworks faithfully copied paintings, with the brush strokes rendered by stitches worked in dyed wool. Linwood lived in Leicester, helping her mother to run, and eventually taking over, a boarding school for young ladies. In 1776 she exhibited needlework pictures at the Society of Artists in London. In 1787 she was introduced to Queen Charlotte (1744-1818), and this encouraged her to exhibit some of her pictures at the Pantheon, Oxford Street. In 1798 she opened an exhibition at the Hanover Square Concert Rooms in London; the exhibition subsequently toured to Scotland and Ireland. The collection, increased to 64 pieces, returned to London to be shown at Mary Linwood's own gallery in Leicester Square. Linwood embroidered her last piece when she was 78, although she lived to be 90 and worked as a school mistress until a year before her death. In 1845, during her annual visit to her Exhibition in London, she caught the flu and died. She was buried in St Margaret's Church, Leicester. Her entire collection was dispersed at Christie's in April 1846. The asking price for Linwood's Tygress (£10) was not met.
