A Bluestocking Knits: Mrs. Abbott Lawrence

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August 20, 2011

Mrs. Abbott Lawrence

"Mrs. Abbott Lawrence, née Katherine Bigelow", around 1855, by Chester Harding (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), found via Katherine at One More Stitch.

The face you would not be surprised to see on some small-town parson, and so it is a little disconcerting to see it surrounded by delicate ringlets and fine lawn. Is the look in those black eyes gentle or stern? What is she knitting that is so red against her severe black dress? Her face is rather hard and her back unforgivingly straight, and yet her feet sticking out like that give her a curious casualness. The Gothic chair and the homely little dog-like workbasket only add to the ambiguity.

08:36 AM in Historical Knitting, Knitting and Reading in Art | Permalink

Comments

What an interesting portrait. I think the eyes are gentle. Perhaps the red is long underwear!

Posted by: Mary Lou | September 05, 2011 at 07:17 AM

This is such a beautiful portrait!
Those black eyes are gentle and I guess that red knitting is long scarf shawl.

Posted by: Perkey | December 14, 2011 at 08:37 AM

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“Compassion is not religious business, it is human business; it is not luxury, it is essential for our own peace and mental stability; it is essential for human survival.”
-- The Dalai Lama