Tickets
English
DonateMembershipTickets

Four Seasons shawl

mid-19th century
Not on view
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]

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • 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

More Artwork

More Artwork
A slider containing 5 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Shawl
mid-19th century
Shawl
mid-19th century
Ceramic Horn, Glazed pottery, French
Ceramic Horn
French
late 18th or early 19th century
Shawl, Emile-Frédéric Hébert French, active 1851–1867, Wool and silk, French, Paris
Shawl
Workshop director Emile-Frédéric Hébert
ca. 1860
The Connoisseur, Honoré Daumier French, Pen and ink, wash, watercolor, lithographic crayon, and gouache over black chalk on wove paper
The Connoisseur
Honoré Daumier
ca. 1860–65

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

Feedback

We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please contact us using the form below. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.

Send feedback

Content Notice

The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world, and our online collection reflects ongoing work conducted over the course of our more than 150-year history. You may encounter objects or images that may be inappropriate for some viewers or information that may be outdated.