Object number1997.7.142
Sampler
Date1831
Artist
Tacy Horner
(American, 1805 - 1877)
CultureAmerican
MediumSilk threads on linen ground
DimensionsSight (tall rectangle): 22 1/8 x 16 7/8 in. (56.2 x 42.9 cm)
Unframed: 22 3/8 x 16 7/8 in. (56.8 x 42.9 cm)
Framed (vintage frame with glass): 24 1/8 x 18 7/8 x 3/4 in. (61.3 x 48 x 1.9 cm)
Unframed: 22 3/8 x 16 7/8 in. (56.8 x 42.9 cm)
Framed (vintage frame with glass): 24 1/8 x 18 7/8 x 3/4 in. (61.3 x 48 x 1.9 cm)
Credit LineTransfer from Vassar College Libraries, Special Collections, Martha Clawson Reed Collection
Period19th c
Classification(s)
Signed At center: Tacy Horner
InscribedOur time is short we all may know / While in this transien world below / So my dear friends this you may have / When I am in the silent grave / Tacy Horner / 1831
Vassar Exhibitions
Exhibition HistoryModeling Femininity: Art and the Moral Education of Nineteenth-Century Women, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, January 27 - March 15, 2000Label TextMade from embroidered lines of colored thread on a fabric background, samplers were important in the upbringing of middle- and upper-class girls in Europe and in the Americas by the eighteenth century. To demonstrate their literacy and domestic fitness, girls would generally produce at least two samplers during their formal education. Though samplers are frequently dismissed as a formulaic craft, recent scholarship foregrounds the complex ways that women melded poetic texts and visual motifs into artistic expressions of their own through subtle variations. Like landscape painters, embroiderers often used designs inspired by the natural world and infused their works with religious symbolism or narrative. In this example, Tacy Horner surrounded a central building with floral patterns and abstracted animals, centered around a poetic reflection on fleeting morality.
DescriptionThreads in colors of yellow, pink, blue, green, and white compose a picture with stand-alone depictions of flowers, paired birds, and single butterflies in the upper center. The verse and inscription are set within a shaped floral wreath, flanked by two vases filled with flowers. Below are more single floral motifs, a star shape, clover, a swan, a basket, and in the lower center is a landscape with a large two story house with trees on either side and a bird and dog in the yard. The composition is enclosed in a border of pink flowers with yellow details.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge.
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