Landscape with Small Figures
Flemish
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1690 - circa 1710
Materials
Tapestry, wool and silk, 8 warps per cm
Measurements
2.36 m (H); 1.75 m (W)
Place of origin
Belgium
Order this imageCollection
Speke Hall, Merseyside
NT 1197406
Summary
Tapestry, wool and silk, 8 warps per cm, Landscape with Small Figures, probably Flemish, c. 1690-1710. A landscape with two small figure groups in the middle distance. To the left of the centre a man and a woman walk from right to left, apparently blown by a strong wind which pushes the woman's cloak over her head. Further back and to the right a woman with a baby walks away to the right followed by a bearded man who runs after her looking back and gesturing over his shoulder. The figures are in a clearing in a wooded landscape, and the trees also seem to be blown by a strong wind coming from the right hand side. There is a vertical join in the tapestry to the right of the second figure group running from top to bottom, and the foliage to the right of this is not continuous with the rest of the scene, although it could come from the same tapestry.
Full description
The subject of this unusual tapestry is difficult to determine. It was formerly known under the title of ‘Paul and Verginie’ after the 1787 novel of the same name by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, however the tapestry was probably made in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century, before the novel was written. (Helen Wyld, 2012)
Provenance
Miss Adeleide Watt (1857-1921); Trustees of the late Miss Adeleide Watt, 1921-1942; National Trust from 1943
Makers and roles
Flemish, workshop