Embroidered Sampler 1830

Editor: This Embroidered Sampler, created in 1830 by Mary Ann Stauffer, now resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's a textile work featuring both drawing and fibre-art. The colours are really muted and subtle, creating a rather quaint feeling, and the landscape style almost makes it feel naive, in a good way. What's your take on it? Curator: Note how the various visual elements are placed: Observe the placement of the house, the animals, the inscription in relation to one another. Consider, too, the deliberate choice of colours and stitchwork to define the architectural structure and its setting. Do you detect the relationships between the pictorial space, the textual space and the decorative borders? Editor: I see that the house sits centrally within the border, providing structure. And now I'm noticing the tree and house compete for dominance in the work, but their tonal similarities ultimately creates harmony between them. Are those tonal and spatial elements doing something more than looking pleasant? Curator: Indeed, harmony is created not simply because it is “pleasant”, but as a construction with meaning. For instance, the verse inscribed in the sampler references spiritual and physical decay – elements carefully intertwined into the visual schema with the image of architecture sitting beneath symbols of death and eternity. Consider the function of visual motifs here. How are we meant to read the placement of a verse alongside a pastoral scene? Editor: So, you are suggesting that the Sampler isn’t just a pretty picture. The text creates deeper links to mortality that are being expressed through this landscape. I wouldn’t have seen that at first glance. Curator: Precisely. Paying close attention to such elements allows for a fuller reading of how visual and linguistic features intertwine in the broader historical moment. Editor: Okay, that makes sense. Thank you! Curator: My pleasure. It is through considered observation that the artist's intent can become clearer, and one appreciates the formal decisions.