Landscape with Boating Scene

1827

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Lilias Blair McPhail

Landscape with Boating Scene

Lilias Blair McPhail

Landscape with Boating Scene

1827

Physical Qualities Linen ground, silk embroidery threads, 17 x 23 1/8 in. (43.2 x 58.8 cm.)

Credit Line Gift of Mrs. Francis White, from the Collection of Mrs. Miles White, Jr.

Object Number 1973.76.352

Although needlework was considered as important in the South as in the North, far fewer Southern samplers and pictorial embroideries have survived, probably due in large part to the plundering and destruction of Southern homes during the Civil War. However, within the past two decades, many Virginia samplers have been documented, and at least 13 groups that show the influence of a single teacher or school have been identified. Lilias McPhail’s sampler is a rare example from Norfolk. Lilias’ younger sister, Sarah Hatton McPhail, worked an almost identical boating scene with the same instructive verse, “The daughter who loves her house will take a lively interest in all its concerns and be solicitous to promote the happiness of the little circle of which she forms a part.”

Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1973; Nancy Brewster (Mrs. Frances White) by inheritance; Virginia Purviance Bonsal (Mrs. Miles White, Jr.).

Anita Jones, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Lessons Learned: American Schoolgirl Embroideries," November 23, 201-May 10, 2015.

Charleston Museum of Art. "A Proper and Polite Education: Girlhood Embroidery," 4/5/06-9/30/06.

Kim Smith Ivey, Colonial Williamsburg, DeWitt Wallace Gallery, Williamsburg, VA., 'Virginia Samplers: Young Ladies and Their Needle Wisdom, October 31, 1997-September 8, 1998. See above for related reference under different title. (Note: This sampler was removed from the exhibition April 30, 1997 due to the fact that it was already exhibited for three months at the BMA prior to going to Williamsburg.)

Anita Jones, BMA, 'The Accomplished Stitch: American Samplers and Silk Embroideries from the Collection,' May 11-July 20, 1997.

BMA, 'Period Needlework in America 1739-1865,' 1978, cat. 28, p. 5, ill. p. 6; traveling exhibition circulated to Annapolis, Elkton, Salisbury, Columbia, Leonardtown, Stevenson, and Chestertown, Md.

BMA, 'The White Collection,' March 19 - June 2, 1974, no catalogue. Susan Cumins,

Kimberly A. Smith, ''The First Effort of an Infant Hand'; An Introduction to Virginia Schoolgirl Embroideries, 1742-1850,' Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Vol. XVI, No. 2 (November 1990), pp. 31-101. This sampler is mentioned on p. 77 along with two others like it under group IX, also see p. 93 in which one of inscriptions on the piece is given.

Kimberly Smith Ivey, 'In the Neatest Manner: The Making of the Virginia Sampler Tradition, Williamsburg, Va.: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1997, illus. p. 2, fig. 1.

Inscribed: Embroidered across top of sampler within picture area in blue thread: 'The daughter who loves her house will take a lively interest in all its concerns and be solicit-/ous to promote the happiness of the little circle of which she forms a part.' [Note: first 's' in 'happiness' formed like an 'f']/ In natural thread: 'Truth is the brightest ornament of youth.'; Embroidered across bottom of sampler within picture area in black thread: 'Wrought by Lilias Blair McPhail in the 10th year of her age. Norfolk Va.'