flea market find: needlepoint nude
I did the usual on my drive up to Woodstock last week — through New Jersey to get the cheapest gas and then popping into my favorite hole-in-the-wall thrift store. As I walked in, I passed this framed needlepoint picture. I went back. I took it down and left it up at the counter while I perused the other rooms. I’d never seen a nude needlepoint before. She set me back $17 bucks. A steep buy the way I thrift. All the little old ladies were cooing over her. I was the crazy one willing to take her home. For now I have her propped on Owen the bulldog’s white modern leather chair. He looks so serious snoring underneath the nude. — Allison R.
Have you had any great flea market finds recently? Please share!
OHHH so cool! I think she was well worth it, I have NEVER seen anything like that before.
Wow that is really great!!! I’ve never seen anything like it before either!
how very cool is that? i would not have passed it up.
i found this “something or other” which was too interesting to not get. Not sure what I will do with it yet, but I love it’s teardrop shape. It will most likely become an “assemblage” only $2 , so not to bad…just posted it at my blog.
oh.. my blog is artesprit.blogspot.com
oops!
I think it’s worth it. That would look fab in my bathroom.
I have a soft spot for needlepoint and counted cross-stich finds at flea markets, etc because I do it myself. I found a beautiful sampler that the person put into a tea tray for two bucks at an antique store.
This is a freaking SCORE. $17 is a bargain in my book. I LOVE HER, you lucky duck!
That’s so great!
I have seen nudie needlepoints before, but not so classy and retro. There’s been a movement lately in alternative craft stores to do needlepoint patterns from nude photos, but they’re usually kind of… anatomical. I don’t know. I know some ppl who love the very anatomical stuff (women’s studies majors, etc – it’s sort of a sex-positive-feminist thing), but those designs seem a little OTT to me, even as a sex-positive-feminist.
The last needlepoint that I found in a store was just a little cross-stitch of two dinosaurs, about ten years old, cheesy and cartoonish, with some phrase about friendship. It wasn’t something I’d hang on my own wall, but it was something that I thought would make a cute component for something to sell on Etsy, like a totebag or something, and I picked it up for 75 cents. Most of my past weird thrift scores have been things like vintage chess pieces, unique old box handbags, a Genie phone, a really scary old doll head.
What a lovely find! And I just realized that I’ve seen it before–in my mythology textbook. Did you know that this needlepoint is a fairly faithful reproduction of a 15th century Spanish painting of Venus? (minus Cupid and with a different mirror). Painted by Diego Velazquez. Google image search Venus + Velazquez
this looks just like Venus in the recent Peter O’Toole movie called Venus ,he is up for an academy award for best actor – what a great show and your lucky find is almost a duplicate!!!!!!!
Hi- Thanks everyone for your responses. I want to see Venus for sure. I spent a night looking for the 15th century inspiration online..Thanks Sarah for pointing out Velasquez…She really is growing on me…Owen is asleep under her now. Keeping cozy in the blizzardy weather. Peace!
Allison R
I found a lovely b/w needlepoint picture too this month, blogged here http://www.feltbug.blogspot.com (cross stitch at the car boot – posted Feb 5th) !
I was very happy as I had just started my own cross-stitch project 2 weeks earlier !
Oh wowww it’s the Rokeby Venus in needlepoint form! That is so cool and totally postmodern…I love how the anonymous artist chose such a canonical image and applied it to one of the so-called “low” arts. What a great find, I am very jealous.
What are the dimensions? I have a needlepoint nude also