Mary Linwood stitched with worsted (wool) threads onto woven cloth of linen or linen/wool mix. She used hundreds of colours and different thicknesses of thread to help create texture and depth.
Worsted is made from a long-stapled sheep’s wool, spun into a fine, smooth yarn. Her threads were probably produced in Leicester although she is said to have dyed some of her own colours. Linwood was highly skilled at making embroidery look like painting.
She did this by stitching with straight stitches, varying the length and density to produce different effects. This was known at the time as needle-painting.
Materials and Making Gallery
From a painting by Moses Houghton Purchased from Warner, Sheppard, and Wade, 1957 Leicester Museums & Galleries
Based on a painting by Thomas Gainsborough Leicester Museums & Galleries, purchased from Sotheby's, 1959
Probably based on a painting by John Boultbee. Leicester Museums & Galleries, gift of Miss Monica Fulford, 1959
“I saw her at work… with pincushions all round her, stuck with needles, threaded with worsted of every colour, and after having touched the picture with a needle instead of a brush, she would recede five or six pages back to view the effect.”
William Gardner, 1838