Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Madame X

The main reason I wanted to stitch one of Leigh's Ladies of the Night series is the challenge of working a piece with so much black on it.  How on earth do you stitch a piece with black hair against a black gown with a black cloak and black birds and not have it be a blot of black ink?  Of course Leigh Designs separates these areas through the use of gray and purple, but still....

I hope the use of texture will make the black areas separate.  I'm not sure you will be able to see the differences I put into the canvas except in person but I am going to try.

This is one source of inspiration--John Singer Sargent's Madame X portrait.  Isn't that gown amazing?!
http://www.themasterpiececards.com/famous-paintings-reviewed/bid/23543/Famous-Paintings-Madame-X

Before I forget, I updated the Chilly Hollow Stitch Guides blog with a short article on Bongo canvases which have guides available.
http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com/2010/10/bongo-does-stitch-guides.html

Jane, back to basketweaving that amazing gown and watching Sherlock on PBS
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/sherlock/watch.html

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

8 comments:

Donna said...

I knew this canvas reminded me of something - Madame X! I think I spent an hour looking at this painting the last time I was at the Met.

The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure said...

It's been years since I lived in NYC but I have stared at her for a long time, too. It's a great painting.

palma said...

One word: wow

NCPat said...

Madame X is amazing as will this be....do I detect a glimmer along the cleavage?

The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure said...

No glimmer at the neckline, Pat. Sorry.

NCPat said...

Must be my monitor!

Susan Benford said...

So glad you enjoyed the photo (and I hope the art history post, too) of "Madame X".

If you're looking to stitch an equally confident man, here's a suggestion:

http://www.themasterpiececards.com/famous-paintings-reviewed/bid/21139/Famous-Painters-Frans-Hals-and-The-Laughing-Cavalier

I'd love to see how you'd handle his sleeves!

The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure said...

Susan, have you seen Gay Ann Rogers' Portrait of Elizabeth 1? It's class #206 about half way down. That's how those sleeves are done!

http://www.callawaygardens.com/info/gardens/events/needlearts-course-descriptions.aspx