Leicester’s Mary Linwood was a celebrity artist in the early 1800s but has largely been forgotten. For this exhibition, contemporary textile artist Ruth Singer explores the life and legacy of Linwood.
She made detailed embroidered versions of famous paintings by British artists in a technique called needle painting.
Linwood was an innovator and entrepreneur as well as a talented artist. Alongside her Leicester school for young ladies, she exhibited her embroidered works in touring exhibitions and created the first gallery to be run by a woman in London.
In her lifetime she was supported by the wealthy and powerful and was very well-known and respected. Since her death she has been ignored and undervalued. This is the first retrospective of Mary Linwood’s artworks since 1945.
Pomeranian Dog by Mary Linwood, 1798
Hand embroidery in wool thread. Based on a painting by Charles Catton the Elder, Gift of Mrs E. C. Linwood Duffield, 1944.
This piece was exhibited in Linwood’s London exhibitions. It was donated to the museum by a member of the Linwood family.