STELLA MEMORIAL
American or English 1790
Silk Embroidered Memorial
This tender scene depicts a beautiful young lady holding flowers seated by a monument inscribed: Stella obit
179.
It was worked by a highly educated young girl who no doubt studied classic English literature, which probably included
the writings of Jonathan Swift (1667-1745).
This silk embroidery likely depicts mourning the changes in life that are so elegantly illustrated in Jonathan
Swift's letters known as the Journal to Stella that describe the maturation of the charming charismatic
Stella. Stella was actually a childhood and lifelong acquaintance of Swifts whose actual name was Esther Johnson.
She was thirteen years younger than Swift and she was twenty-nine and Swift forty-two when he started his Stella
Journal.
It is also possible this is a memorial to the loss of youth and its accompanying infatuations that is the subject
of Sir Philip Sidney's (1554-1586) sonnet titled Astrophel (star lover) & Stella (star). Astrophel struggles
and is preoccupied with his clumsy youthful unrealistic infatuation with Stella.
Silk and paint on silk; 15 3/8" x 13 5/8" framed.
$1,800
STEPHEN & CAROL HUBER
(860) 388-6809
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