Details

Object type

hanging

Title

The Nativity

Artist/Maker

Ann Macbeth maker

Place Associated

England, Cumbria, Patterdale (place depicted)

Date

1945-1946

Materials

wool, silk, linen, glass, metal

Description

Hanging or embroidered panel, 'The Nativity', of natural linen embroidered with black, blue, brown, green, grey, orange, pink, purple, red, white and yellow wool and blue, green, orange, pink, yellow and white silk threads, blue and transparent beads worked in stem, chain, blanket, cross, eyelet, back, fly, zig-zag, knot, various satin stitches and French knots, with gold wire and glass beads. Depicts the Nativity with Jesus Christ in a manger with an angel on the left and the Virgin Mary on the right. Around the Virgin Mary are flowers including Lady’s Mantle, Lady’s Slipper, Lady’s Bedstraw, Lady’s Smock, Lady’s Finger and Marigold. The angel holds a Star of Bethlehem. The figures are depicted in the Lake District with the village of Patterdale and river Goldsill in the foreground, and Helvellyn and Striding Edge in the background. The panel has a crotchet edging and is mounted on blue linen which also has a crotchet edging. There are thirteen brass rings covered with green wool in buttonhole stitch for hanging.

Ann Macbeth lived in Patterdale from 1921 until her death. She made this panel, together with a second one ‘The Good Shepherd’ for St Patrick’s Church, Patterdale, which still hangs in the church. The figures are surrounded by flowers associated with the Virgin, including Lady’s Mantle, Lady’s Slipper, Lady’s Bedstraw, Lady’s Smock, Lady’s Finger and Marigold, whilst the angel holds a Star of Bethlehem.

The Nativity panel was exhibited by Ann Macbeth at the Lady Artists’ Exhibition in Glasgow in 1946 from where it was purchased by Glasgow Museums. In a letter to the museum Ann Macbeth wrote that ‘I found when wandering in the countryside near my cottage in the Lake District the ruin of a farm steading. In it was tiny manger, made I should think for a goat. It was just large enough to hold a tiny baby comfortably ... and that set my needle going'.

Credit Line/Donor

Purchased from Ann Macbeth, 1946

ID Number

E.1946.25

Location

In storage