My Home in Fresno around the Year 1900

Marguerite Zorach, My Home in Fresno around the Year 1900, 1949, wool embroidered on linen, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift from the Collection of Tessim Zorach, 1970.65.12
Copied Marguerite Zorach, My Home in Fresno around the Year 1900, 1949, wool embroidered on linen, 23 14 × 32 14 in. (59.1 × 81.9 cm) framed: 29 14 × 38 14 in. (74.3 × 97.2 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift from the Collection of Tessim Zorach, 1970.65.12

Artwork Details

Title
My Home in Fresno around the Year 1900
Date
1949
Dimensions
23 14 × 32 14 in. (59.1 × 81.9 cm) framed: 29 14 × 38 14 in. (74.3 × 97.2 cm)
Credit Line
Gift from the Collection of Tessim Zorach
Mediums
Mediums Description
wool embroidered on linen
Classifications
Subjects
  • Figure group
  • Landscape — California — Fresno
  • Architecture Exterior — domestic — house
Object Number
1970.65.12

Artwork Description

These works are built out of my life and the things that have touched my life.
--Marguerite Zorach

Marguerite Zorach's "pictures in wool" are bold and vibrant explorations of color that often incorporate imagery from her own life. My Home in Fresno around the Year 1900 is a portrait of the artist's childhood. In a 1956 essay she described planning this work, to include "a large white gingerbread house, light and airy and delightful in stitches; the magnolia trees and palms, fences and flowers; [and] children at night playing hide and seek under the street lamp." 
Following the birth of her two children, Zorach turned to embroidery to adapt to the realities of juggling both her household and her work as an artist. Painting required periods of uninterrupted time, but with fiber she could pick up and put down the work as needed, as well as visualize and plan a composition while accomplishing other tasks.

Exhibitions

Media - 2019.15 - SAAM-2019.15_1 - 137377
Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women
May 31, 2024January 5, 2025
The artists in Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women mastered and subverted the everyday materials of cotton, felt, and wool to create deeply personal artworks.