Four Seasons shawl
A shawl was a required fashion accessory during much of the nineteenth century. In the early 1800s long, rectangular, stolelike examples, hand-woven in India with boteh (pine cone) or paisley patterned end panels, were coveted for use with Empire-style dresses. This style was followed by the square shawl and then, with the introduction of wider skirts, by "plaids"—a term used not to describe the pattern but to connote a very large and long shawl, usually ten feet by five feet.
Stylistically, this shawl demonstrates both a "four seasons" layout—in which the ground color is different in each of the quadrants—and an organization a la pivot, indicating the manner in which the vegetation swirls around a central point. The design for the shawl is probably French, but it may have been purchased by a Scottish manufacturer and jacquard-woven in Paisley.
[Alice Zrebiec, 1995]
Stylistically, this shawl demonstrates both a "four seasons" layout—in which the ground color is different in each of the quadrants—and an organization a la pivot, indicating the manner in which the vegetation swirls around a central point. The design for the shawl is probably French, but it may have been purchased by a Scottish manufacturer and jacquard-woven in Paisley.
[Alice Zrebiec, 1995]
Artwork Details
- Title: Four Seasons shawl
- Date: mid-19th century
- Culture: French or Scottish
- Medium: Wool and silk
- Dimensions: H. 74 1/2 x W. 72 1/4 inches (189.2 x 183.5 cm)
- Classification: Textiles-Woven
- Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Edwin E. Butler, in memory of her father Dudley B. Fuller, 1926
- Object Number: 26.179
- Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
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Scottish
mid-19th century
possibly French
mid-19th century
Emile-Frédéric Hébert
ca. 1860
Multiple artists/makers
designed 1805, woven 1808–11
Multiple artists/makers
1839
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