Panel (Dress or Furnishing Fabric)

Description

The notion of Gesamtkunstwerk, or unified design, favored and promoted by the Wiener Werkstätte, could be taken to an extreme, as when, for example, guests to a luxurious villa were provided robes to wear whose patterns matched the various furnishings of the room they were to gather in, thus letting them harmonize perfectly with the décor. Poiret was a follower of this princeiple as well. This striking fabric is known to have functioned as both clothing and furnishing fabric: it covered the walls of a showcase dining room staged by Martine in 1923 and 1925, and it was made into a splendid jacket for Poiret himself.

Provenance

Chambord, Inc., New York, by Apr. 1, 1924 [incoming receipt, Apr. 1, 1924; copy in curatorial object file]; sold through Robert Allerton, Chicago, to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1924.

Panel (Dress or Furnishing Fabric)

Atelier Martine

c. 1920

Accession Number

86378

Medium

Cotton and linen, plain weave; block printed

Dimensions

139.1 × 132.1 cm (54 3/4 × 52 in.); Repeat: 45 × 42 cm (17 3/4 × 16 1/2 in.)

Classification

textile

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Robert Allerton