Phoebe Anna Traquair
This richly colored and detailed embroidery is the first in a series of four called The Progress of a Soul. The human soul is represented by an ideal young man dressed in an animal skin, in harmony with the rich pattern of the luxuriant natural world around him. Here in The Entrance, completed in 1895, he is full of hope and enthusiasm, blissfully ignorant of life's realities. This figure was based on the character of Denys L'Auxerrois from Imaginary Portraits by the English critic and writer Walter Pater. The Victory, the last embroidery in the series, was finished in 1902.
Phoebe Anna Traquair was an Irish-born artist, who achieved international recognition for her role in the Arts and Crafts movement in Scotland, as an illustrator, painter, and embroiderer. We present her work thanks to the National Galleries of Scotland.
P.S. See five gems of the National Gallery in Edinburgh here!