Object number1997.7.3
Spring
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)
Signed G. Smyth 1796
InscribedSpring/ Now see where surly Winter passes off,/ Far to the north, and calls is russian blasts,/His blasts obey, and quits the howling hill,/The shattered forest, and the ravaged vale,/While softer gales succeed at whose kind tuch/Dissolving snows in livid torrents lost,/The mountains lift their green heads to the sky.
DescriptionWorked in black and green 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 taken from the third stanza of "Spring" from "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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