While it took years for female artists to fully gain acceptance of their works, through needlework, these women artists were able to capture what images they had presently in their mind. After George Washington’s death in 1799, female needlework evolved into more than just samplers showing a woman’s readiness to wed, the artists started creating mourning pictures. One of the most intricate mourning pictures created was Prudence Punderson’s The First, Second, and Last Scene of Mortality. In this mourning picture Prudence stitches her own life, starting at her birth being cared for by a slave, then being engaged with her needlework as an adult, to finally her casted with her initials on the top. The floor pattern is a checkerboard floor, typical in those times of something that might have been painted on or fancifully done. The mirror in the room is covered which shows a sign of mourning. Throughout the entire mourning scene, there is only a small mention of the male sex, a simple soldier in a painting behind a weeping woman. This could mean many things, such as Prudence’s father was killed years before in the service, or maybe she lost a husband or brother fighting and has been in a state of mourning for
While it took years for female artists to fully gain acceptance of their works, through needlework, these women artists were able to capture what images they had presently in their mind. After George Washington’s death in 1799, female needlework evolved into more than just samplers showing a woman’s readiness to wed, the artists started creating mourning pictures. One of the most intricate mourning pictures created was Prudence Punderson’s The First, Second, and Last Scene of Mortality. In this mourning picture Prudence stitches her own life, starting at her birth being cared for by a slave, then being engaged with her needlework as an adult, to finally her casted with her initials on the top. The floor pattern is a checkerboard floor, typical in those times of something that might have been painted on or fancifully done. The mirror in the room is covered which shows a sign of mourning. Throughout the entire mourning scene, there is only a small mention of the male sex, a simple soldier in a painting behind a weeping woman. This could mean many things, such as Prudence’s father was killed years before in the service, or maybe she lost a husband or brother fighting and has been in a state of mourning for