Images(4)

Needlework Picture, "Scipio, Restoring the Captive Lady" by Harriet Cowles

Date1806

Artist/Maker Harriet Cowles (January 12th, 1790-June 15th, 1808)

Attributed to School of Lydia Bull Royse

OriginAmerica, Connecticut, Hartford

MediumSilk, metallic, and chenille threads, brass spangles, and watercolor on a silk ground, in a gilt, in a gilt and gessoed white pine frame with eglomise (reverse painting on glass) mat

DimensionsFramed: OH: 31 1/4" x OW: 34"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1992-101,A

DescriptionThis is a needlework and watercolor picture in its original frame, depicting the tale, "The Continence of Scipio," entitled here, "Scipio, Restoring the Captive Lady." The scene shows a standing male figure in yellow, gesturing toward a female figure and holding her right hand in his left hand. The female figure, in a white gown, bends slightly toward a kneeling male figure. She holds her left hand in the kneeling man's right hand. The kneeling man kneels on his left knee and holds his left hand to his chest. He wears a yellow tunic. Behind these three central figures are two older figures, who gaze at the female figure.

The figures stand in front of five tall, white columns, which are bordered on top by gold and red curtains. There is a house on the right side of the background, as well as a field, potted flower, tree, and hilly landscape. The standing male figure stands on the first of a set of stairs, while the remaining figures stand on a large carpet of white and blue diamonds, framed by gold, and surrounded by red. The background landscape scene and the figures' faces, arms, and legs are painted with watercolors.

The scene is surrounded by a white pine frame covered in gilt and gesso and reverse painted glass mat. Written in gold on the eglomise mat is "HARRIET COWLES. 1806." in the bottom left corner and "SCIPIO, RESTORING THE CAPTIVE LADY" in the bottom center.

Stitches: couched, flat, French knots, herringbone, satin, split, stem, straight
Label TextHarriet Cowles’s superb silk embroidery represents the culmination of years of needlework instruction for a well-bred young woman. Sixteen-year-old Harriet likely worked the picture at Lydia Royse’s school, which was near her hometown of Farmington, Connecticut. The shading of the curtains, use of chenille, and painted on sandals seen here are characteristics of needlework produced at the Royse school. Similar gessoed and gilded white pine frames of the same form appear on other needlework pictures made at schools in nearby Hartford. The picture entitled “Scipio, Restoring the Captive Lady,” depicts the moment when Roman general Scipio Africanus returns the captive woman named Lucretia to her betrothed. Lucretia’s parents stand next to her, overcome with emotion.

Harriet was the eldest child of Elijah and Elizabeth Cowles of Farmington, Hartford County, Connecticut. Elijah was a director of the Hartford Bank and head of the noted mercantile firm, Elijah Cowles & Co., one of the leading firms of its kind in Connecticut at the end of the eighteenth century. According to her gravestone at Memento Mori Cemetery in Farmington, Harriet died "of a prevailing fever" in 1808, just two years after completing her monumental piece.

Inscribed"HARRIET COWLES. 1806."
"SCIPIO, RESTORING THE CAPTIVE LADY"
ProvenanceThe needlework picture by Harriet Cowles was purchased from Motley Antiques in Richmond, VA where it was advertised as a "British needlework picture" from a "James River” family estate. (Conversation between curator and Sumpter Priddy III, 6/9/1992)
It's probable that upon Harriet's early demise, the picture descended to her brother James Cowles (b. 1795), and then to his son, James Cowles (1843-1922) who moved to Virginia and died in Richmond in 1922.

HISTORY OF MAKER: Harriet Cowles (January 12th, 1790-June 15th, 1808) was the eldest child of Elijah (May 20th, 1755-June 12th, 1826) and Elizabeth Cowles (August 13th, 1768-October 6th, 1836). She was born and lived in Farmington, Hartford County, Connecticut. Elijah was a director of the Hartford Bank and the head of noted mercantile firm Elijah Cowles & Co., one of the leading firms of its kind in Connecticut at the end of the eighteenth century. According to her gravestone at Memento Mori Cemetery in Farmington, Harriet died "of a prevailing fever" when she was 17 years old.

HISTORY OF SCHOOLTEACHER: Lydia Bull Royse (sometimes spelled "Royce") was born on October 31st, 1772 in Hartford, Connecticut and died on May 7th, 1832 in the same city. She was a descendant of Captain Thomas Bull, an early settler in Connecticut who is considered one of the founders of Hartford. Lydia Bull married John Royse (1772-1798) on October 27th, 1792. The pair lived in New York, Richmond, and New Bern. They had a child, Eliza Lydia Royse. She married first George Sheldon, to whom she was married for just a year and a half before he died, and then John Butler, who she married 20 years later. When John Royse died in 1798, Lydia Bull Royse returned to Hartford and, in the following years, opened a school for young ladies, both boarders and day students. According to an extant bill for one of her students, Lydia herself painted the watercolor portions of the needlework pictures her students stitched. She opened her school in approximately 1800 and retired from it in 1818. Her daughter, Eliza, carried on the school after Lydia retired.