Women's embroidered self-portraiture in the late 18th century: Authorship, agency, and artistry

Abstract

In 18th-century Europe and North America, portraiture satisfied multiple purposes: the creation of individual and/or familial identity, verisimilitude, and the decoration of a home. Self-portraiture, a likeness of an artist created by the artist, often served as an artist's statement that articulated professional goals. Textile self-portraits, however, unlike the more popular sculpted and painted versions, have been neglected by scholars of the early modern period. Three examples were made by English embroiderers Mary Linwood (1755–1845), Mary Knowles (1733–1807), and Marie Thérèsa Lasselle (1735–1819), a New World settler whose family traded with Native American peoples on behalf of the British. Because the lives of these women are poorly documented, their embroidered self-portraits were more than just a likeness, for they served an important autobiographical function. The iconography and materiality of these portraits conveys information about late 18th-century beliefs about femininity, self-expression, and individual agency.