Water-lily curtain

Cheney Brothers|Associated Artists

1883–1900 · Silk, woven · The American Wing

If a pattern proved successful, Associated Artists tended to adapt it for use on more than one type of textile. Just as the firm printed the same design on both velvets and plain cottons, achieving very different effects, it employed this water-lily design both as a printed pattern on "shadow silks" and for a traditionally woven silk brocade, as seen in this curtain. Associated Artists most likely supplied its designs to the mill in watercolor on paper; undoubtedly, in-house staff members at Cheney Brothers, a silk weaving firm in Hartford (1838-1955), translated the designs onto the cards that directed the jacquard power looms. While Wheeler and her associates had an idea of the effects they wanted to achieve with each pattern, the technicians at the mills made those visions possible.

Artist

Cheney Brothers|Associated Artists

Date

1883–1900

Medium

Silk, woven

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Museum Accession