Autumn

Date1796

Artist G. Smyth (Unknown)

CultureAmerican

MediumSilk on wool

DimensionsSight (wide rectangle): 6 3/8 x 8 1/8 in. (16.2 x 20.6 cm)
Framed: 8 1/2 x 10 1/4 x 3/4 in. (21.6 x 26 x 1.9 cm)

Credit LineTransfer from Vassar College Libraries, Special Collections, Martha Clawson Reed Collection

On View

Not on view

Period18th c

Classification(s)

InscribedAutumn/ Crownd with the sickle and the wheaten sheaf/While Autumn nodding oer the yellow plain,/Come jovial on, think, oh grateful think,/How good the God of harvest is to you:/Who pours abundance o'er your flowing fields,/While those unhappy partners of your kind,/Wide hover round you like the fowls of heaven,/And ask their humble dole.

DescriptionWorked in green and black thread in the manner of a Quaker extract sampler, surrounded by an undulating frame modestly adorned with a single yellow blossom on each side, G Smyth's verse is from "Autumn" in "The Seasons" by the Scottish poet James Thomson, a poem that was widely illustrated and interpreted by painters throughout the 18th and 19th-Centuries. This sampler is part of a set of four embroidered by G. Thompson, each with a verse from one of the four seasons. It appears that the border is unfinished and it it likely that similar blossoms in other colours were intended for the blank stems.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu