The Offering of Isaac
date: label: associated date
content: 1961
name: label: maker
content: Loucks, Jane Elizabeth
notes: label: Description
content: By the 1840s a new technique [in the field] of needlepoint known as Berlin wool work was the rage. It arose in Germany at the beginning of the 19th century. New dyes became available and brightly colored wools could be worked in tent stitch on canvas. The patterns were painted by hand on “point paper,” which today would be called graph paper. Jane’s piece is an example of this technique.
label: Description
content: This large rectangular canvas work piece depicts the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. The biblical account is found in Genesis 22:1-14. Abraham is standing clothed in flowing robes girded at the waist, with a dagger hanging at his left side. He gestures toward the sky with his left hand, and his right hand is over Isaac’s face. A lamb is in the bushes at the right side of the picture and smoke is coming from a brazier in the left corner. The picture is worked on penelope canvas ground, 9/18 threads per inch, with Berlin wool in cross stitch. The faces, hands, and feet are done in petit point.
label: Description
content: Jane Elizabeth Loucks was born in 1835 to John and Desdemonia Marsh Loucks in Sharon, New York. She married Joseph Warren Hastings on February 16, 1871, in Manhattan, New York. They moved to Illinois and had one daughter, Dena. See her other pieces; <i>Mary Queen of Scots</i> and <i>The Ascension of Jesus.</i>
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
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content: Embroidered Pictures
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content: Textiles
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TE.T11105.01
label: catalog number
content: T11105
label: accession number
content: 238291
objectType: label: Object Name
content: embroidered picture
label: Other Terms
content: embroidered picture; Circa 1850
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: penelope canvas 9/18 (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wool (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: reds (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: blues (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: greens (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: gold (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: brown (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: black (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: berlin woolwork (overall style)
label: Physical Description
content: grospoint is cross stitched (joint piece production method or technique)
label: Physical Description
content: petit point: half cross and cross stitch (joint piece production method or technique)
label: Physical Description
content: petit point face, legs, hands, chest (joint piece production method or technique)
label: Physical Description
content: embroidery (overall production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (frame material)
label: Measurements
content: average spatial: 24 in x 30 3/4 in; x 60.96 cm x 78.105 cm