In Praise of the Needlewoman: Embroiderers, Knitters, Lacemakers, and Weavers in Art

This charming and rewarding collection of beautiful paintings celebrates the centuries-old iconography of women engaged in needlework, an activity that has always united women from all countries and in all stations of life, whether taken up for practical or artistic purposes. Artists as long ago as the Middle Ages sought to capture the needleworker's quiet concentration and domestic milieu, to convey the social and cultural connotations of this largely female domain, and its symbolic resonance. Many of the loveliest of these paintings are depicted, including works by Vermeer, Chardin, Velazquez and Dali, by the Pre-Raphaelite school and by the impressionists, in particular the works of such women artists as Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot. AUTHOR: Gail Carolyn Sirna is an award-winning embroiderer and a regular columnist for Needlepoint Now. A teacher of needlework for more than twenty-five years, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from America's National Academy of Needle Arts in 2004. SELLING POINTS: More than 80 beautiful paintings from the history of Western art, depicting women engaging in needlework Based on extensive research by an award-winning needleworker The perfect gift for needleworkers and for anyone interested in women's history and the representation of women in art 90 colour illustrations