The Art of Mary Linwood : Embroidery, Installation, and Entrepreneurship in Britain, 1787-1845

The Art of Mary Linwood is the first book on Leicester textile artist Mary Linwood (1755-1845) and catalogue of her work.When British textile artist and gallery owner Mary Linwood died in 1845 just shy of 90 years old, her estate was worth the equivalent of £5,199,822 in today’s currency.As someone who made, but did not sell, embroidered replicas of famous artworks after artists such as Gainsborough, Reynolds, Stubbs, and Morland, how did she accumulate so much money?A pioneering woman in the male-dominated art world of late Georgian Britain, Linwood established her own London gallery in 1798 that featured copies of well-known paintings by these popular artists.Featuring props and specially designed rooms for her replicas, she ensured that her visitors had an entertaining, educational, and kinetic tour, similar to what Madame Tussaud would do one generation later.The gallery’s focus on picturesque painters provided her London visitors with an idyllic imaginary journey through the count