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Needlework picture showing a basket maker working in a lush landscape that includes a peacock on the left and bee hives on a hillside on the right..
needlework (visual works)
wool (hair)
silk (fiber)
linen (material)
Picture, Needlework
"Cherished Possessions": Mary Fleet made this needlework picture in 1749, when she was twenty years old. Her initials and the date are embroidered in the upper right, on the hillside just above the straw beehives. The daughter of one of New England's most successful printers, Mary was probably able to learn the art of needlework at an exclusive private school. The pattern for the picture was derived from prints illustrating Virgil's Georgics, a poem extolling the beauties of nature.
""M.F."/"1749""
Fleet, Mary, 1729-1796 (Maker)
24 3/4 x 19 5/16 (HxW) (inches)
Estate of Miss Mary L. Eliot
1927.436
Massachusetts (United States)
Boston (Suffolk county, Massachusetts)
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