Bed curtain border

Unknown

fourth quarter 18th century · Linen · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

This object is from the collection of Natalia de Shabelsky (1841-1905), a Russian noblewoman compelled to preserve what she perceived as the vanishing folk art traditions of her native country. Traveling extensively throughout Great Russia, she collected many fine examples of textile art of the wealthy peasant class. From the 1870s until moving to France in 1902, Shabelsky amassed a large collection of intricately embroidered hand-woven household textiles and opulent festival garments with rich decoration and elaborate motifs. The Brooklyn Museum holdings include many fine examples including the majority of the garments. Portions of Shabelsky's collection are also housed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Cleveland Art Museum, and the Russian Museum of Ethnography in St. Petersburg. The exquisite workmanship of this example displays the variety and fineness of stitches in an elegant stylization of the tree of life, the most prevalent motif in Russian embroidery.

Artist

Unknown

Date

fourth quarter 18th century

Medium

Linen

Culture

Russian

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Ella C. Woodward Memorial Fund, 1931