Needlework Picture by Rebecca Couch
Date1803
Maker
Rebecca Couch (1788-1863)
Attributed to
Litchfield Academy
MediumSilk, silk chenille, silver and gold metallic threads with paint on a silk ground; in a gilded wooden frame with an eglomise (reverse painted) glass mat
DimensionsFramed: OH: 20 7/8" x OW: 23"; By sight: OH: 15 1/8" x OW: 18"
Credit LineGift of The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection & Insurance Company
Object number2022.601.1
DescriptionThis is an almost square painted and silk embroidered picture of an oval scene depicting a standing woman in a neo-classical-style gown holding a basket of berries. The female figure is surrounded by trees and foliage. The silk embroidery threads are shades of cream, yellow, gold, blue, and green with gold and silver metallic threads. Surrounding the oval scene is a border consisting of floral swags with bowknots at each corner and at the center of each side. The embroidery is in a period gilded wooden frame with an eglomise mat with the inscription in gold: REBECCA COUCH AGED 15 IN THE YEAR 1803".Stitches: blanket, chain, couched, knots, outline, satin, split, straight
Label TextRebecca Couch created her sophisticated embroidered and painted picture in 1803, when she was a student at the Litchfield Female Academy. A register of students records that Rebecca attended the school that year. Founded in 1792, Mrs. Sylvia Pierce’s Female Academy in Litchfield, Connecticut, taught girls from around the country. The curriculum included an array of needlework and watercolor painting, as well as an advanced academic curriculum that stressed the study of history and geography. The study of academic and ornamental subjects was combined by illustrating poetry, literature, and historical, mythological, and biblical themes with elaborate embroideries.
The eldest child and only daughter of Thomas Nash Couch and Abigail Stebbins Couch, Rebecca Couch was born in Redding Connecticut on June 19, 1788. She married James C. Denison on September 29, 1811. She died in 1863 and is buried in Redding Ridge Cemetery.
ProvenanceThe picture was purchased by donor from the antiques dealer Ruth Troiani in 1984.
History of maker:
The eldest child and only daughter of Thomas Nash Couch and Abigail Stebbins Couch, Rebecca Couch was born in Redding Connecticut on June 19, 1788. She married James C. Denison on September 29, 1811. She died in 1863 and is buried in Redding Ridge Cemetery. The Couch family was one of the original 17th-century settlers in Wethersfield, Connecticut.
1805-1820 (ca 1812?)
