Embroidery of The Source by Ingres

The original work is the masterpiece of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, The Source (French: La Source). The female in the picture holds pitcher in her hands, from which water flows. The lines of the flowing water echo with the tender silhouette of the female, bringing out a dynamic aesthetic amidst the serene ambiance. This work was embroidered solely by GU Jia-Qiao, a rare male embroider artisan. He employed threads seemingly random at a closer look yet somewhat orderly as the background to foster the naturally integrated effect at distance. Such technique is referred to as “Free Cross Stitch.” At the dawn of the Republic of China, the exchanges with the Western countries grew. Thus, the Western paintings were introduced into China and gradually became subject-matters for embroideries. To capture the texture of oil painting, besides the method of “keeping the stitch close and lining up the threads” in the traditional embroidery techniques, Gu utilized the crossing threads long and short to present the image in colors that were introduced layer by layer, which is particularly suitable to present works of oil painting, sketching, and photography.