Needlework Picture, Christ and the Woman of Samaria, by Unknown Maker

Dateca. 1840

OriginAmerica, South Carolina, Charleston (possibly)

MediumWool and silk embroidery threads with watercolor on a silk ground in a mahogany frame and under glass (fiber identification by eye)

DimensionsFramed: OH 25 7/8" x OW 27 5/8" Actual: OH 21" x OW 22 5/16"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1935.601.2

DescriptionThis is an almost square needlework picture worked in shades of blue, pink, red, gray, brown, and green silk and wool embroidery threads and watercolor on a silk ground. In the center of the scene is a circular stone well with a two-handled pitcher sitting in front of it. A man (presumably Christ) is seated to the left side of the well wearing a gray robe partially covered by a red tunic and a gray cloak. His hair, beard, face, and hands are painted; his golden halo is embroidered. A woman (presumably the woman of Samaria) stands to the right of the well; her dress is magenta shaded with pink, her tunic tan, and her cloak a faded gold; her shoe is gray. Her hair, face, and arm are painted. She holds a gray and white shaded pot with a rope in her left hand. A row of circular motifs suggesting a cobblestone road or pathway lies in the foreground. There is an embroidered palm tree to the left and an oak tree with French knot foliage to the right. A row of bushes and then mountains are visible in the background.
The embroidery was framed at the Old Print Shop at an unspecified date in a mahogany frame.

Stitches: French knots, outline, satin
Label TextThe scene depicted in this embroidery is from the New Testament, the Book of John, Chapter 4 in which Christ is seated by a well, from which a Samarian woman comes to draw water. One of the most popular stories in the Bible, it was frequently pictured in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Bibles, and such an illustration may have formed the source for this needlework. The unknown needlewoman created a variety of textures by her careful choice of stitches and the use of wool in addition to silk embroidery threads. Wool work was more often done on linen or canvas than on silk, and the impracticality of pulling such bulky yarns through a fragile silk support is demonstrated by the fragile condition of this piece. Except for the collars on the costumes of the two figures, all needlework is executed in wool.
ProvenanceBefore 1935, The Century House (11 Meeting Street, Charleston, SC); Purchased by Holger Cahill (New York) for Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.