Sarah Johnson
Sampler

MakerAmerican, 1757–1821
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Sampler
Date1769
Made inNewport, Rhode Island, United States
MediumSilk on linen
Dimensions16 1/2 × 13 3/4 in. (41.9 × 34.9 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, museum purchase funded by the Bayou Bend Docent Organization Endowment Fund
Object numberB.2013.27
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

A group of Newport samplers, dating as early as 1715, predate the earliest identifiable examples made in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, or Charleston. Fashioned in a rectangular band pattern, they follow an English precedent. By the mid-1750s, these stylized designs began to transition to naturalistic ones. Sarah Johnson’s embroidery is a fully developed example of this latest group, which is referred to as the “frolicking people.” Stylistically, the composition consists of people, animals and houses randomly positioned throughout a layered format framed by meandering vines and flowers. Scholars have suggested that the pattern may have originated with Mrs. Sarah Haggar Osborn, who taught school in Newport between 1734 and about 1776.

Related examples: Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Newport Historical Society, Rhode Island Historical Society, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Cooper-Hewitt Museum, and the American Museum in Britain.


Provenance[Skinner, Bolton, Massachusetts, May 25, 1985, sale 1038, lot 202]; [Marguerite Riordan, Stonington, Connecticut, 1985]; Dolf Fuchs, Stonington, Connecticut; consigned to [Christie’s, New York, January 25, 2013, sale 2670, lot 86]; purchased by [Amy Finkel, M. Finkel & Daughter, Philadelphia]; purchased by MFAH, 2013.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Stitched with three bands of alphabets and the inscription: SaLLE Johnson Born / May 4 1757 & made / this May 8 1769 in my 13th / year and This Needle Work of mine can tell / I in my Youth Was Learned Well / and by my Elders also taught /not to spend my time for Naught; further inscribed Jesus Who Reigns above the sky / and Keeps the World in awe / was once a child as Young as I / and kept his father law and, below within the cartouche, Sarah / Johnson / Newport / Rhodisland / 1769

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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