Needlework Picture by Maria Teresa Lalor

DateCa. 1810

Artist/Maker Maria Teresa Lalor (1793-1816)

Artist/Maker Samuel Folwell (1764-1813)

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (probably); owned in New Jersey, Trenton area

MediumWool, chenille, and silk embroidery theads on a linen ground with paint in a gilded wooden frame with glass

Dimensions27 3/8" x 35 1/4" sight; 36 1/4" x 44 1/4" framed.

Credit LineGift of Alice Lalor Molten Earle and John B. Earle

Object number1993.601.1

DescriptionThis is a large wool and silk embroidered framed picture on linen worked in shades of golds, tans, and greens with blue and white painted embellishments. The scene consists of a neoclassical garden view. A young woman in a gold-colored gown with a small cross in her hair sits on the bank of a stream beneath a tree strumming a lyre. A body of water fills the ground, and the stream issues from it, running from middle right to lower left in the picture plane. Two swans swim in the water below a footbridge over the stream. On the far side of the stream stands a very large urn with flame atop it. Trees, shrubs, and other vegetation cover the hilly ground, and in the far distance are visible mountains.
The initials "M T L" are lettered in gold at lower center on the glass.
The picture is framed in a gilded wooden frame that appears to be original to the embroidery. It is 1 7/8" deep. The inner edge of the frame is decorated with a repetitive water leaf motif, and a large acanthus-like leaf design is repeated in the deep cove of the frame. Beading appears near the outer edge.
Label TextThis picture was embroidered by Maria Teresa Lalor; the overall design of the picture and the watercolor painting are stylistically attributed to Samuel Folwell.
A large number of pictures with neoclassical subjects are attributed to the collaborative efforts of Samuel Folwell and his wife, Ann Elizabeth Folwell (1770-1824), an embroidery teacher in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Folwell advertised her "SCHOOL OF EMBROIDERY" in 1813, noting that "Mr. Folwell, being a Master of Drawing, those Ladies under her tuition will have a double advantage in shading, which is all the merit of the picture." Samuel Folwell provided the overall designs for the pictures, sometimes borrowing motifs from printed sources. In this instance, Maria Teresa Lalor under the instruction of Mrs. Folwell completed the embroidery, and Samuel added painted backgrounds and details.
The painted and embroidered picture descended in the Lalor family until it was given to Colonial Williamsburg by the great-great-granddaughter of the picture maker. A second silk embroidered picture worked by Maria Teresa while a student at the Young Ladies Academy of the Visitation Convent in Georgetown is also in the museum's collection.
MarkingsPress-printed wording on the paper covering the back of the picture is "YORK TRIBUNE/[illegible] 1897." (This appears upside down on the paper covering the bottom part of the frame.) Also, in larger letters further along, appears "[M?]ARINE MATTERS." Very large (but now illegible) letters appear upside down along the top edge of the paper on the top of the back of the frame and overlap the muslin covering the back. The pencil notation "0381 [?]" is on the viewer's left side of the frame, from the back, running vertically along the side.
ProvenancePer donor, Mrs. John B. Earle on 12/11/93: The needlework picture descended from maker, Maria T. Lalor; to her daughter, Catharine Mary Lalor (Mrs. Joseph Gillingham Brearly, b. 1814 at "Bow Hill" in Trenton, NJ, d. 1895 at Germantown, PA); to her daughter (Alice Lalor Brearly (Mrs. Robert Potter Molten, lived at Germantown, PA); to her daughter, Helen Cuthbert Molten (Mrs. Alexander Hamilton Van Keuren, lived in Washington, D. C.); to her daughter, Frances Van Keuren (Mrs. Harold Pestalozzi); to her first cousin, Alice Lalor Molten (Mrs. John B. Earle), the donor.

History of needleworker:
Maria Teresa Lalor was born in 1793 to John Lalor and Catharine Moroney (the widow of Thomas Moroney), who wed on October 11th, 1792. They were married by Reverend F. A. Fleming at Saint Joseph's Catholic Church in Philadelphia. John Lalor ran a tavern on South Water Street in Philadelphia from 1794 until his death in 1818. His sister, Maria's aunt, established a Catholic school for young ladies, the Georgetown Academy for Young Ladies (now the Georgetown Visitation Monastery), in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. She arrived in America from Ireland in 1795 and lived in Philadelphia until 1799. Maria attended her aunt's school, although it is not known exactly when. She stitched this silk embroidery, which depicts the school, under the tutelage of Maria Sharpe sometime between 1800 and early 1804.

Maria made her First Communion on December 16th, 1804 and first received the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist when she was 11 years old. After her years of education in Georgetown, she continued her school in Philadelphia. When in school in Philadelphia, Maria stitched a larger and more sophisticated silk needlework picture, which is also in the Colonial Williamsburg collection (1993.601.1). She also painted two watercolors, now in the CW collection (2012-144 and 2012-145).

Maria married Barnt De Klyn Lalor (c. 1791-1856) in Saint Joseph's Church in Philadelphia on November 17th, 1811. Barnt was from Trenton, New Jersey, and was Maria's cousin several times removed. In 1784, Barnt purchased the estate of Major William Trent and named it Bow Hill after its geographical location at the southern end of Trenton. Maria and Barnt's only child was Catharine Mary Lalor, born in 1814. Maria Teresa died on December 1st, 1816. Her daughter Catharine married Joseph Gillingham Brearley (1808-1874) in 1839 and they raised two children, a son and daughter.