Studio: international art (47.1909)

The Exhibition of Swedish Applied Art at Stockholm

Foremost amongst the several concerns which
have taken up modern artistic textile work, and
which have the aid of some of Sweden’s most
famous painters, stands the organisation known as
“ Hand.arbetet’s Vanner” (the Friends of Handi-
work), to which I have more than once had
occasion to refer in the pages of The Studio.
It is a self-contained and state-subsidized institu-
tion, which is being worked on strictly artistic
and disinterested lines, and is instrumental in the
making of a vast quantity of charming textile
work, from large and costly “Gobelins” to small
cushions and bags, all de-
signed by able craftsmen
and artists and worked
under the supervision of
the “ Handarbetet’s Van-
ner ” by a large number of
lady workers, who thus
dnd a pleasant and suitable
occupation.

Handarbetet’s Vanner,
of which Mile. Carin
Wastberg is now the artis-
tic leader, have three or
four charming interiors at
the exhibition, foremost
amongst which is a large
room arranged as a chapel
with several altars, decked
with altar cloths and ante-
pendiums of great beauty.

The Swedish Church, like
the English, has retained
its ancient equipment of
sundry sets of altar cloths,
etc., according to the
seasons of the Church, and
especially of late years a
great impetus has been
given to this kind of work.

In Swedish homes, too,
the craving for beauty has
grown with leaps and
bounds during the last
decade, and a sense that
even the most common-
place article of use may
be endowed with a simple
beauty of its own, is assert-
ing itself more and more.

Cause and effect often
overlap each other, and
“ Handarbetet’s Vanner ”

have undoubtedly done much to foster that craving
for beauty, which it has now become their busi-
ness to satisfy. It is unfortunately impos-
sible to enumerate, let alone describe in detail,
even the more important work in the Handarbetet’s
Vanner exhibition, which comprises considerably
more than a hundred items. Suffice it to mention
the names of some of the artists who are repre-
sented here. Amongst the ladies there are
Mile. Maria Sjostrom, Mile. Maria Adelberg,
Mile. Maria Andersson, the artistic leader Mile.
Wastberg and several others, and amongst the men

HAUTE-LISSE TAPESTRY DESIGNED BY GUNNAR WENNERBERG
EXECUTED BY THE “LICIUM,” STOCKHOLM

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