DOI Heft:
No. 7 (October, 1893)
DOI Artikel:Vallance, Aymer: The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society at the New Gallery, 1893
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17189#0032
The Arts and Crafts Exhibition, 1893
GESSO BOX. BY J. P. COOPER. SKETCHED BY
ALAN WRIGHT
last is, moreover, disfigured by an upholsterer's the embroideries of Mrs. Gerald Davies and
edging in the worst taste. At the same time the Maud Brooke. The work of the latter is a pleasing
plan of carrying out the one design with solid harmony in flame-tints, pale greens and blue,
embroidery in colours for the border and in plain
brown outline for the middle part, is ingenious and
decidedly effective. Even the President has been
unable to withstand the fascinations of the hybrid
Anglo-Dutch style to which I have been referring,
as may be seen from the embroidered bed-hanging
designed for his house Kelmscott Manor. If, as it
would appear (to judge particularly from the parrot
preening its tail-feathers on a branch in the middle
of the curtain) birds may not be well drawn without
sacrificing the character of the style of the period,
is it not an unfortunate model to have chosen?
William Morris's usual style, which is something
quite his own, were surely preferable. In the Morris-
Persian manner is a beautiful panel of thick silk In the present Exhibition there are several
darning on canvas from a design by May Morris, examples of figure embroidery in silks. Heywood
who does not want a certain following, as witness Sumner's five panels, to illustrate A Midsummer
Nights Dream, are fantastic and
delicately coloured. May Morris
contributes a small panel embroi-
dered from a figure designed by
William Morris. The blue and
green silks in Mary NewilPs panel,
Innocence Taught of Love, have a
somewhat harsh and metallic ap-
pearance : while Mrs. Jack exhibits
an embroidered reproduction of
Rossetti's frontispiece for the Early
Italian Poets. But it is a question
whether the result attained in any of
these instances is sufficient to repay
the amount of time and pains and
eye-wear involved. Modern embroi-
derers when they attempt the human
form are indeed rarely successful.
Can it be that they are too ambitious
and not content to submit to the
necessary limitations of embroidery ?
As to the panel, Oberon and Titania,
designed by George Jack, I cannot
conceive any human being deriving
pleasure from it. It must of course
have been meant only to be gro-
tesque. Walter Crane's fine panel,
The Vision of Dante, is undoubtedly
the best of the figure embroideries.
Dante, in a rich red-chestnut coloured
^ZP^^ y *--—--—- H ^y£=Z3) WW robe, is balanced at the opposite end
^^SBaHHHH!|^9BHisaiHK^^ 1 :v 3 ^irk '''''''
ously enough, is worked in green
CHIMNEY BREAST AND GRATE, DESIGNED BY GEORGE JACK METAL WORK , v , .
EXECUTED BY LONGDEN AND CO. SKETCHED BY ALAN WRIGHT t0"eS' ^ ^ 18 S°
20
GESSO BOX. BY J. P. COOPER. SKETCHED BY
ALAN WRIGHT
last is, moreover, disfigured by an upholsterer's the embroideries of Mrs. Gerald Davies and
edging in the worst taste. At the same time the Maud Brooke. The work of the latter is a pleasing
plan of carrying out the one design with solid harmony in flame-tints, pale greens and blue,
embroidery in colours for the border and in plain
brown outline for the middle part, is ingenious and
decidedly effective. Even the President has been
unable to withstand the fascinations of the hybrid
Anglo-Dutch style to which I have been referring,
as may be seen from the embroidered bed-hanging
designed for his house Kelmscott Manor. If, as it
would appear (to judge particularly from the parrot
preening its tail-feathers on a branch in the middle
of the curtain) birds may not be well drawn without
sacrificing the character of the style of the period,
is it not an unfortunate model to have chosen?
William Morris's usual style, which is something
quite his own, were surely preferable. In the Morris-
Persian manner is a beautiful panel of thick silk In the present Exhibition there are several
darning on canvas from a design by May Morris, examples of figure embroidery in silks. Heywood
who does not want a certain following, as witness Sumner's five panels, to illustrate A Midsummer
Nights Dream, are fantastic and
delicately coloured. May Morris
contributes a small panel embroi-
dered from a figure designed by
William Morris. The blue and
green silks in Mary NewilPs panel,
Innocence Taught of Love, have a
somewhat harsh and metallic ap-
pearance : while Mrs. Jack exhibits
an embroidered reproduction of
Rossetti's frontispiece for the Early
Italian Poets. But it is a question
whether the result attained in any of
these instances is sufficient to repay
the amount of time and pains and
eye-wear involved. Modern embroi-
derers when they attempt the human
form are indeed rarely successful.
Can it be that they are too ambitious
and not content to submit to the
necessary limitations of embroidery ?
As to the panel, Oberon and Titania,
designed by George Jack, I cannot
conceive any human being deriving
pleasure from it. It must of course
have been meant only to be gro-
tesque. Walter Crane's fine panel,
The Vision of Dante, is undoubtedly
the best of the figure embroideries.
Dante, in a rich red-chestnut coloured
^ZP^^ y *--—--—- H ^y£=Z3) WW robe, is balanced at the opposite end
^^SBaHHHH!|^9BHisaiHK^^ 1 :v 3 ^irk '''''''
ously enough, is worked in green
CHIMNEY BREAST AND GRATE, DESIGNED BY GEORGE JACK METAL WORK , v , .
EXECUTED BY LONGDEN AND CO. SKETCHED BY ALAN WRIGHT t0"eS' ^ ^ 18 S°
20