"Sunday School Picnic" Quilt

Description

Jennie Trein, an accomplished quilt maker who reportedly made over one hundred quilts, designed this one to commemorate the collected memories of many a Sunday picnic. In a compression of time and space that mirrors the nature of memory, the quilt depicts both recurring and singular events as happening simultaneously. For example, in the border of the quilt, at top right, Trein depicts herself with her small twin daughters en route to the picnic, but in the central picnic scene, she illustrates one of her daughters as an adult, dressed in her nurse's uniform and with a dog on a leash. Similarly, the young couple hiding behind the cabin is also shown eloping on horseback off in the distance.

Provenance

Sold, Christie's, Jan. 20, 1992, lot 333. Shelly Zegart (1941-2025; born Rochelle Weiss) and Kenny Zegart (1940-2025), Louisville, KY, by 1999 [Austin, ed. 1999, 87; invoice, Nov. 12, 2001; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2001.

"Sunday School Picnic" Quilt

Jennie C. Trein

1932

Accession Number

158426

Medium

Appliquéd, pieced and embroidered quilt; dyed and printed cotton, linen and rayon plain, twill, satin and patterned weave fabrics; cotton, silk and rayon embroidery fabrics; plastic liberty bell charm

Dimensions

214 × 213.2 cm (84 1/4 × 84 in.)

Classification

textile

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Robert Allerton and The Christa C. Mayer Thurman Textile Endowments