The Manifesto

Description

Designed after an early eighteenth century tent stitched picture, this expansive needlework scene depicts many episodes in the life of an affluent English family including its elaborate parterre and gardens, a stately brick and stone house, domestic, exotic and wild animals cavorting in the lawns, a girl feeding her geese, another reading an open book, and a third girl carrying a basket. Birds, flowering plants, shrubberies and trees fill in the landscape with the sun, moon, and clouds in the firmament above.

Needlework paintings of this sort were likely drawn by professional artists with bits and pieces borrowed from contemporary engravings and embellished with the sartorial fashions of the period. There was a great emphasis on naturalism: luxurious plants appear more frequently in early eighteenth century works as “arcadia”- an appreciation of natural things, became increasingly popular.

This piece was stitched in full cross stitch on 40 count linen, measuring approximately 19″ x 30″. It is executed entirely in cross stitch and is available in silk or cotton. The kit comes with 40 count linen, but is available in different thread counts