"Myrtle", watercolour design for embroidery by Mary Gemmell

1875

Item

339mm x 339mm

Gemmell, Mary (Miss): Mary Gemmell (1845-1905) was an artist and designer working as part of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Her sister Elizabeth was employed by the Royal School of Art Needlework and later went on to found the Decorative Needlework Society in 1877. Mary was one of the artists listed in the catalogue of works that came back from the Royal School of Art Needlework's display at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 and her designs seem to have been used well into the 1880s. She showed work 3 times at the Royal Academy of Arts and by 1889 The Queen newspaper reports her as sharing a new studio, 6 Williams Street, Lowndes Square with her sister. Mary Gemmell apparently 'showed sketches and flowers pieces in oil and watercolour'. Mary showed at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Dudley Gallery Art Society, Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, London Salon, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Society of Women Artists, Walker Art Gallery and she was a member of the 91 Club. The 91 Club, founded in 1891 by Swedish born Anna Nordgren was an organisation founded to promote professional women artist and craftswomen, one of the professional women's societies that served as an alternative to the male only guilds and societies of the Arts and Crafts Movement and allowed women opportunities for professional networking and development and to exhibit at a high standard.

Design, watercolour and body colour on paper (backed at a later date with linen). "Myrtle" branch with blossoms, buds and leaves signed 'M.G.'

This design seems to have been exhibited in the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition and returns to the Royal School of Art Needlework to be displayed in 1877 listed in that catalogue (MS 136.15) is:

'79. Screen, Musgrave Satin. Flower Designs, "Myrtle", "Jasmine" and "Wild Rose". Designed by Miss M Gemmell. The work was described in The Building News (March 23 1877) "One fine embroidered screen, in which were worked on different sides the briar rose, the myrtle and honeysuckle or jasmine, is especially worthy of notice for the exquisite workmanship of the raised flowers and leaves in silk applique on the dark ground of Musgrave satin. The design is by Miss M Gemmell, and is numbered 79 in catalogue, and a price of £71 is marked".

Myrtle is an aromatic, evergreen shrub with pointed glossy leaves, it has a sweet scented flowers, white with a hint of pink. Native to the Mediterranean, Asia and India, it has been cultivated in Britain possibly from Elizabethan era. It became a traditional wedding flower of the British royal family from the wedding of Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, the Myrtle was traditionally taken from plants at Osborne house. The plants apparently were first propagated from a posy given to Queen Victoria by Prince Albert's mother.

'M.G.'

D5/29