Textile Design with Large Stylized Flowers over Interlacing Branches with Leaves
Robert Bryer American
Not on view
Vertical panel with a textile design that is part of a group of 266 textile designs by the American artist Robert Bryer, possibly made for United Designing Co., since most of the designs carry a stamp of the "United Designing Co. / WOrth 4 - 8975". Some of them also contain a stamp in the verso of the "Original Designing Company, Inc."
The collection contains a great variety of designs, from the more traditional floral and stripe patterns, to thematic designs based on various travel destinations, with palm trees and other holiday attributes. Especially interesting among these are patterns inspired by textiles and paintings of Native American tribes, including the Inca, Navajo, Aztec and Maya. The patterns are composed of semi-abstract figures distributed across the design in a regular or, in some cases, a more casual fashion. The spontaneity of designs and the use of floral and animal motifs suggest they were created for printed textiles in the forties.
This textile design is made up of large stylized flowers made up of two layers of petals over a blue background with dark blue interlacing branches with leaves. The flowers are colored alternatingly: the larger petals of white color left unrendered and the smaller with blue, a light blue shade forming around them on the white petals, or the large petals with dark blue and the smaller with carmine, with white highlights forming around them over the blue petals. This design presents a playful reinterpretation of traditional floral and "chintz" textile motifs, which was common in the production of American textiles during the 1930s and 1940s.