Precious Item of the Week

Jane Grier («Miss G.»), an embroidered handkerchief from 1892

Another textile icon of the Prinzhorn Collection is the handkerchief by Jane Grier. The men’s handkerchief is completely covered with embroidery, and in all four corners, she stitched texts:

“Dresden. – Forget me not – Dr. W.”
“Forget me not – G.”
“Herr Dr. Willführ – from Miss Grier”

Near one of the hearts formed by a thick bundle of red embroidery threads, another date can be deciphered: “Souvenir tears—Nov 16 1892.”

The handkerchief is one of the first works that made its way into our collection. It was part of a small collection used for teaching, which Hans Prinzhorn came upon when he joined the Heidelberg psychiatric ward as an assistant physician in 1919. Emil Kreapelin had mentioned it in 1913 in his psychiatry textbook, as an “example of a peculiar artwork” created by a patient suffering from dementia praecox. Since 1980, it has been exhibited again and again, including in Basel, London, Charleroi, Paris and Vienna.

The pseudonym Miss G. was only recently decrypted

Until only a few months ago, we knew almost nothing about the woman who embroidered this. She wasn’t included in Prinzhorn’s inventory, and was only referred to as “Miss G.” Her signature on the handkerchief was difficult to decipher, with “Miss Grier” being the best guess. However, recent research in the Public Record Office in Dresden verified this name: an unmarried woman named Jane Grier, who was born in Ireland and lived in the “Four Seasons” hotel in Dresden with her mother and her sister, worked as a governess and lady’s companion, her father having emigrated to Australia as a navy physician. She herself had traveled extensively.

In August of 1892, Jane Grier began to feel she was being watched, she became easily agitated, wore unusual clothing, and behaved in such a conspicuous and morally objectionable manner that her family had her committed to the mental asylum. From October of 1892 until May of 1893, Grier was a patient in the Sonnenstein asylum in Pirna (near Dresden). According to her medical records, she exposed herself and imposed herself upon her doctors in an erotic manner.

The embroidery gets out of control

With her embroidery, Jane Grier ensnared Dr. Willführ, one of the assistant physicians employed by the Dresden mental asylum. “Vergiß mein nicht – Forget me not”: in two languages, she implores her doctor, and embroiders a commemorative handkerchief with “tears of remembrance”. But Miss G. may have defeated her own ends: what began as a meticulously planned embroidery—to which pencil sketches can attest—to be given to the idolized doctor, seems to have gotten out of hand. Clumps and bundles of embroidery floss overrun the handkerchief in red, green and ochre-colored loops, which create a muddled thicket of reminiscence.

When the owner of the hotel asked whether Miss Grier could return to the hotel, the asylum answered that although she was mentally ill, she didn’t constitute a public danger, but that she would need to be obliged to maintain cleanliness, order and good manners, and to keep her distance from men.

On May 23, 1893, Jane Grier arrived at the municipal poorhouse in Dresden. After that, no record of her has been found.

Images 1, 2 (detail), 3 (detail): Jane Grier («Miss G.»), „“Forget me not“, 16.11.1892, embroidered handkerchief , Inv. No. 6053 c Prinzhorn Collection, Heidelberg University Hospital