Images(3)

Needlework Memorial to Luther Storrs by Lucinda Storrs

Date1808

Artist/Maker Lucinda Storrs (1792-1814)

OriginAmerica, New England

MediumSilk embroidery thread, watercolor paint, and ink on silk ground in a gilded wooden frame with eglomise glass mat

DimensionsOverall (Unframed H x W): 19 1/2 x 19in. (49.5 x 48.3cm) Overall (Framed H x W): 23 x 22 1/2in. (58.4 x 57.2cm)

Credit LineGift of the John D. Rockefeller, 3rd, Fund, Inc., through the generosity and interest of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, 3rd, and members of the family

Object number1979.604.4

DescriptionThis embroidered mourning picture features a scene of two women on either side of a central obelisk monument with a large urn. The obelisk and urn are stitched with cream thread, with the stitch direction following the shape of the object to add dimension. Elements are outlined in a slightly darker shade of cream. The urn sits on the base of the monument, which extends in front of the obelisk. The urn is a classic baluster shape with a lid and finial. Two swags, stitched in dark brown floss adorn the urn at its rim. In the center of the urn’s body is an oval fabric insert with the typeset inscription, “There/in rest in/Heaven.” Though the insert appears to be held with buttonhole stitches, it apparently is held in place with glue as it does not reach the stitches. Another insert is glued onto the obelisk on either side of the urn’s thin base. It reads, “In memory of Luther Storrs, A.B./Son of Col. Constant & Lucinda Storrs,/born at Lebanon, N.H. Jan. 18, 1784, died at/East-Hampton, L.I. July 19, 1804—Aet. 20 years.” The urn’s base stands in the center of the inscription, separating it into two halves.

The monument is flanked by two mourning women. Each wears a high-waisted gown stitched in the same cream as the monument. The stitch direction in the gowns gives dimension and suggests the folds of the garments. This dimension is complemented by the addition of pencil shading. The waists, sleeve cuffs, and necklines are stitched in the same dark brown as the urn’s swag. Each woman is draped in a long dark blue sash, which is painted instead of stitched. The woman on the left holds her sash over her face as she leans her left elbow on the lid of the urn. Above her hand, the sash has been stitched in the same cream as the gown, with the stitch direction following the direction of the fabric. The woman on the right holds onto her sash with her right hand as she leans her head onto her arm, which is in turn leaning on the obelisk. The sash drapes diagonally across her body. In her left hand she holds a gold book—the cover is stitched while the inside is not. Both women have painted skin and hair.

In the left foreground is a large tree. The leaves are shaded in three colors that make a gradient from the base to the tip of the leaves. The tree’s base is obscured by another grouping of leaves, likely meant to be a bush, that are shaded in the same manner of the tree’s leaves. Two small plants dot the lawn on which the women and monument stand. One appears to be a small oak while the other has aloe-shaped leaves.

Trees and bushes along the horizon add texture to the picture by means of bullion stitches. On the far left of the horizon is a circular building with a steeple, likely representing a church. On the far right is a rectangular building with two stories of windows and a brown picket fence.

The sky is painted in shades of blue and pink, suggesting a sunrise or sunset. In the upper right corner, an angel blows on a horn, out of which wind lines are painted. The angel’s dress and wings are stitched in the same cream floss as the monument while the rest of it is painted. It holds a book with the hand-written inscription, “Tears of Affection,” on its cover.

The needlework and painted picture is in a gilded wooden frame with an eglomise glass mat inscribed in gold: "EXECUTED BY LUCINDA STORRS. 1808."

STITCHES: bullion, buttonhole, chain, outline, and satin
Label Text1) A Washington memorial engraving published by Pember and Luzarder in Philadelphia inspired the composition of this embroidery worked by sixteen-year-old Lucinda Storrs in 1808 probably while attending an unidentified girls’ school. The eighth and youngest child on Constant and Lucinda Howe Storrs, Lucinda commemorated the 1804 death of her older brother Luther, a Dartmouth graduate and teacher. Their mother wrote of his death:
“My son Luther left home for N. York July 1802 died July 19, 1804 God has laid his hand heavy upon us taken from us a dear and a pleasant child cut down in the flower of his age far from home.”

2) In the early nineteenth century, a fashionably educated girl was expected to master the basics of drawing, painting, embroidery, and fine penmanship in addition to her academic studies. An enormous amount of amateur artwork was produced by American students as part of their school curriculum. That adept pupils could achieve memorable results is evident in the needlework and watercolor pictures and memorials Mrs. Rockefeller acquired in the mid-1930s for use at Bassett Hall.

Mourning pictures, which were painted or embroidered as memorials to departed friends or relatives, came into vogue after George Washington’s death in 1799. A Washington memorial print by Pember and Luzarder of Philadelphia inspired this example worked by sixteen-year-old Lucinda Storrs in 1808. Lucinda honored her older brother Luther, a Dartmouth graduate and teacher, who had died in 1804. Lucinda probably completed the memorial while attending a finishing school; she herself died at the age of twenty-two.

Although the layout of mourning pictures varied according to individual tastes, an impressive tomb, a weeping willow, and a pensive mourning are often incorporated in the design. Costumes can be more useful in dating these pictures than inscriptions, because many memorials were dedicated to people who died before the schoolgirl artist was born. Romanticism in art and literature and especially in the Gothic novel had a great influence on art in this period and is reflected in the expression of sentimental feelings and emotion in mourning pictures.
Inscribed“There/is rest in/Heaven”
“Tears of Affection”
“In memory of Luther Storrs, A.B. Son of Col. Constant & Lucinda Storrs born at Lebanon, N.H. Jan. 18, 1784, died at East-Hampton, L.I July 19, 1804-AEt. 20 years.”
MarkingsInscribed in gold on black eglomise mat -- "EXECUTED BY LUCINDA STORRS.1808".
ProvenanceMade by Lucinda Storrs, 1808;
By descent to her mother, Lucinda Howe Storrs, 1814.
Obtained by the American Folk Art Gallery (NY);
Purchased by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller for use in Bassett Hall, 1936;
Given to CWF, 1979.

MAKER HISTORY:
Born in 1792 to Colonel Constant and Lucinda Howe Storrs, Lucinda Storrs was the only girl of eight children. Before her birth, her parents moved from Mansfield, Connecticut to Lebanon, New Hampshire where they were prominent citizens by way of substantial land ownership. The Storrs children were all afforded a liberal education, and Lucinda was undoubtedly sent to finishing school, where she likely made this mourning picture at sixteen years of age.

Luther Storrs, the brother to whom the picture is dedicated graduated from Dartmouth College and became a teacher. Shortly after moving to New York, Luther died in East Hampton, Long Island. In her diary, Lucinda Howe Storrs mentions his death: “My son Luther left home for N. York July 1802 died July 19, 1804 God has laid his hand heavy upon us taken from us a dear and a pleasant child cut down in the flower of his age far from home . . . O my heart is as it were torn asunder part of myself is laid in the grave and the remainder must soon follow.”

Lucinda Storrs also died young, at twenty-two, the third of the siblings to pass away. Of her death, her mother wrote: “Novbr 18 [1814] This day my daughter Lucinda was taken from me by death. How trying the stroke. But I do not mourn as those that have no hope . . . My dear child I trust has gone to the mansions of the blessed and O that I may be prepared to follow her.”

PROVENANCE NOTE: Lucinda Howe Storrs' diary came to the Connecticut Historical Society through Harriet Waterman Storrs. There is no firm provenance to the mourning picture prior to 1936 when it was purchased by Mrs. Rockefeller at the American Folk Art Gallery in New York City, though it presumably stayed with Lucinda Howe after her daughter’s early death. Assuming that the mourning picture followed the same path of descent as Lucinda’s diary, this leaves a fifty year gap between the approximate death of Harriet and the purchase of the piece. However, Harriet did live in Brooklyn, which would account for the picture’s presence in New York.

Another possibility is that it descended through the line of Lucinda Howe Storrs' eldest son, William, who had a son named after Luther. His descendants also moved to New York. The timeline works for descent through four generations of eldest children (William to Luther to William Henry to George Irving) assuming that George’s adopted children (his nieces through his wife) took a few years to sell off his belongings after he died between 1920-1930. The timeline also works for it to have descended from William to Luther to John Jacob to Charles Winfield, whose widow died between 1920 and 1940.