Needlework Picture, "Holy Family By Mary L. Ingraham"

Datepossibly ca. 1820

Artist/Maker Mary L. Ingraham (active ca. 1820)

MediumSilk embroidery and watercolor on satin-weave silk ground

DimensionsActual: OH 18 1/2" x OW 20" (OH 47.0 cm. x OW 50.8 cm.) Framed: OH 21" x OW 22"

Credit LineGift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller

Object number1935.601.1

DescriptionThis is an almost square needlework picture done in faded shades of blue, red, green, and brown silk embroidery and paint on a silk ground. At the center of the scene is the Christ child, dressed in a white robe. Joseph kneels to his son’s left in a brown robe and blue cloak holding a staff. Mary kneels to her son’s right in red robe, blue cloak and white head covering. All three figures are painted. The child looks upward towards the white dove that hovers in the painted sky above him; rays of light emanate from the dove, parting the blue painted clouds. To the far right is a small, painted waterfall that emerges through an arch in a brick wall. The tree to the left of the child’s head is painted while the tree to the right is embroidered. All the rest is embroidered, from the grass and the large gold and brown leaves in the foreground to the basket with the oversized roses in the lower left corner. To the far left is a large, embroidered, brown structure covered in trailing vines. The area of the silk backing designated for painted elements was separated from the rest of the silk by a running stitch in black thread.

The gilded frame and reverse-painted black mat are likely not original; this piece was reframed at the Old Print Shop at an unspecified date. The modern reverse- painted glass mat is assumed to duplicate that originally found on the picture; script lettering in gold paint on it reads "Holy Family, By Mary L. Ingraham."

Stitches: French knots, outline/stem, satin, and straight
Label TextNeedlework was a primary subject of a girl’s education well into the nineteenth century. This silk embroidery is assumed to have been worked by Mary Ingraham while she was a student at the Misses Martin's Female Academy on King Street in Portland, Maine.
Inscribed"Holy Family, By Mary L. Ingraham"

Indecipherable remnants of a pencil or ink inscription remain in the lower margin of the silk ground.
ProvenanceCollection of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.; formerly in the possession of Katrina Kipper, Accord, Massachusetts.

History of Maker:
Mary L. Ingraham is possibly the daughter of Joseph Holt Ingraham, a merchant, and Ann Ingraham, born on September 13, 1806. She married Daniel Brazier on November 19, 1834 in Portland, Maine, and had at least two children, Annie Eliza Brazier Corser (1835-1920) and Joseph Harrison Brazier (1837-1911). She died at the age of 88 on April 1, 1895. She is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Portland, Maine.