Object number1997.7.4
Summer
Date1796
Artist
G. Smyth
(Unknown)
CultureAmerican
Mediumsilk on wool
DimensionsSight: 10 5/8 x 8 7/8 in. (26.99 x 22.54 cm)
Credit LineTransfer from Vassar College Libraries, Special Collections, Martha Clawson Reed Collection
On View
Not on viewPeriod18th c
Classification(s)
SignedG Smyth 1796
InscribedSummer/ See yonder comes the powerful king of day,/Rejoicing in the east, and will not man awake/And rising from the bed of sloth, enjoy/The cool, the fragrant, and the quiet hour,/To meditation due, and sacred song,/For there is aught in sleep can charm the wise,/That lie in dead oblivion loosing half/ The fleeting moments of too short a life.
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 "Summer" 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.
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