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Water-lily textile

Designer Associated Artists American
Manufacturer Manufactured by Cheney Brothers American
1883–1900
Not on view
In the late 1870s, Louis C. Tiffany collaborated with textile designer Candace Wheeler to form an artistic decorating business known as Louis C. Tiffany & Company, Associated Artists. Within a few years, Wheeler branched out and established her own textile enterprise, known simply as the Associated Artists. The design of undulating vines, leaves, and blossoms of water-lilies on this fabric sample exemplifies the firm’s line of "shadow silks," a type of textile where the pattern is only printed on the warp threads. This technique was praised in an 1885 issue of Art Amateur for its ability to render "a sense of life and motion, with gradations of color instead of light and shade."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Water-lily textile
  • Designer: Associated Artists (1883–1907)
  • Manufacturer: Manufactured by Cheney Brothers (American, 1838–1955)
  • Date: 1883–1900
  • Geography: Made in Connecticut, United States
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Silk, woven and printed
  • Dimensions: 29 x 25 in. (73.7 x 63.5 cm)
  • Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Boudinot Keith, 1928
  • Object Number: 28.70.15
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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Water-lily textile
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1883–1900

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