Lyon Silks

Anonymous French Compiler
Sample Book from Lyon
1905-1906
mounted swatches of dyed silk
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Herman Elsberg (Lyon designer)
Ribbon Sample
ca. 1919
silk satin with woven pattern
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Herman Elsberg (Lyon designer)
Ribbon Sample
ca. 1919
silk satin with woven pattern
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Herman Elsberg (Lyon designer)
Ribbon Sample
ca. 1919
silk satin with woven pattern
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Herman Elsberg (Lyon designer)
Ribbon Sample
ca. 1919
cut and voided silk velvet on satin ground
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Herman Elsberg (Lyon designer)
Fabric Panel
ca. 1919
cut and voided silk velvet on satin ground
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Herman Elsberg (Lyon designer)
Fabric Panel
ca. 1919
silk satin with woven pattern
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Herman Elsberg (Lyon designer)
Fabric Panel
ca. 1919
silk satin with woven pattern
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Herman Elsberg (Lyon designer)
Fabric Panel
ca. 1919
silk satin with woven pattern
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Herman Elsberg (Lyon designer)
Fabric Panel
ca. 1919
silk satin with woven pattern
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Herman Elsberg (Lyon designer)
Fabric Panel
ca. 1920
alternating stripes of silk satin and silk velvet with woven pattern
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Charles Plumet for Tassinari & Chatel (Lyon)
Fabric Panel
ca. 1912
silk damask with woven pattern
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Les Petit Fils de C.J. Bonnet (Lyon)
Fabric Panel
1962
hand-cut satin jacquard
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Adrien Karbowsky for Tassinari & Chatel (Lyon)
La Musique
1911
silk and cotton upholstery fabric with woven pattern
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Yvonne Clarinval for Tassinari & Chatel (Lyon)
La Terre
1925
silk satin with woven pattern
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Yvonne Clarinval for Tassinari & Chatel (Lyon)
L'Eau
1925
silk satin with woven pattern
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Yvonne Clarinval for Tassinari & Chatel (Lyon)
Le Feu
1925
silk satin with woven pattern
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Westward on the high-hilled plains

    Where for me the world began,

Still, I think, in newer veins

    Frets the changeless blood of man. 

Now that other lads than I

    Strip to bathe on Severn shore,

They, no help, for all they try,

    Tread the mill I trod before.

There, when hueless is the west

    And the darkness hushes wide,

Where the lad lies down to rest

    Stands the troubled dream beside.

There, on thoughts that once were mine,

    Day looks down the eastern steep,

And the youth at morning shine

    Makes the vow he will not keep.

– A.E. Housman (1896)

Wearing Ribbons

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Portrait of a Young Woman
1538
oil on panel
Národní Galerie, Prague

Cornelis Sustermans
Portrait of Archduke Karl Joseph of Austria
ca. 1653-54
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Jean Ranc
Portrait of Anne Melon
1702
oil on canvas
Musée Fabre, Montpellier

Anton Raphael Mengs
Portrait of Infanta Maria Ludovica,
later Holy Roman Empress
ca. 1764-65
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

George Romney
Portrait of Elizabeth Leigh
ca. 1765
oil on canvas
Huntington Library and Art Museum,
San-Marino, California

Alexander Roslin
Portrait of Anne-Jacqueline-Sophie de Malartie
1781
oil on canvas
Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

Anonymous French Artist
Portrait of a Woman
ca. 1785
oil on canvas
Musée Carnavalet, Paris

Henry Fuseli
Two Courtesans
ca. 1790-92
drawing, with added watercolor
Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand

Jean-Laurent Mosnier
Portrait of Elizabeth Hudtwalcker
ca. 1798
oil on canvas
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Henry Howard
Marguerite (from Goethe's Faust)
ca. 1810
oil on panel
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller
Portrait of a Woman
1829
oil on panel
Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Frederik Moller
Portrait of a Woman
1830
oil on canvas
Milwaukee Art Museum

Albert Edelfelt
Portrait of Annie Edelfelt
1883
oil on panel
Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki

William Merritt Chase
Portrait of a Lady in Pink
ca. 1888-89
oil on canvas
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence

Jules Green
Avez Vous Le Sourire? (magazine)
1899
lithograph (poster)
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Olle Hjortzberg
Olympic Games - Stockholm 1912
printed 1911
lithograph (poster)
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Urania read it, while he with teares and groanes gave the true period to it.  The Letter said thus.

My onely Lord, thinke not this, or the manner strange I now send, knowing already some part of the undeserved course taken with me, only pitie her, who for your sake suffers patiently; accept these my last lines, and with them the sincerest love that ever woman gave to man.  I have not time to speake what I would, therefore let this satisfie you, that the many threatnings I have heard, are come in some kind to end: for I must presently die, and for you; which death is most welcome, since for you I must have it, and more pleasing then life without you.  Grant me then these last requests, which even by your love I conjure you not to denie me, that you love my poore memory; and as you will love that, or ever loved me, revenge not my death on my murtherer, who, how unworthy soever hee was, or is, yet hee is my Husband.  This is all, and this grant, as I will faithfully die

                                                                                                 Yours.

"Alas, faire Shepherdesse," said he, "is this a letter without much sorrow to be read? and is not this a creature of all others to be belov'd?  Never let him breath, that will not heartily, and most heartily lament such a misfortune."

– from The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania, by the right honourable the Lady Mary Wroath, daughter to the right noble Robert, Earle of Leicester, and neece to the ever famous and renowned Sʳ Phillips Sidney knight, and to ye most excellant Lady Mary Countess of Pembroke, late deceased (London: John Marriott and John Grismand, 1621)

Variations

Anonymous French Maklers
Bodice
ca. 1790
block-printed cotton lined with linen
Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia

Anonymous Indian Makers
Shawl
ca. 1800-1850
wool embroidered with silk
Art Institute of Chicago

Anonymous English Makers
Cap
ca. 1575-1625
linen embroidered with silk
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Anonymous English Makers
Cape
(refashioned paisley shawl imported from India)
ca. 1860-70
wool with silk lining
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

Anonymous Indian Makers
Shawl
ca. 1825-50
wool embroidered with silk
Art Institute of Chicago

Mikhail Larionov for Ballets-Russes
Stage Costume for Buffoon's Wife
ca. 1921
silk and cotton
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Léon Bakst for Ballets-Russes
Stage Costume for Nymph
ca. 1912
silk chiffon
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Caroline Reboux
Hat
ca. 1927
wool felt
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Cristóbal Balenciaga
Hat
1962
silk satin, ribbon and ostrich feathers
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Elsa Schiaparelli
Hat
1948
wool felt, feathers and mink
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Anonymous Japanese Makers
Kimono
ca. 1920
tie-dyed silk
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Anonymous Japanese Makers
Kimono
ca. 1930
stencil-printed silk
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Anonymous Japanese Makers
Ainu Robe
19th century
cotton, with appliqué and embroidery
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

John Tunnard for Ascher (London)
Scarf
1947
printed silk twill
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Anonymous Chinese Makerse
Court Robe
(component piece, uncut)
19th century
embroidered silk
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco

Rachel MacHenry (Toronto)
Man's Vest
ca. 1988-92
wool knit
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

The Rock

Insignia

of the earth's

terrible recesses, spirit

of darkness, of 

the criminal mind, I feel

certain there is within you

something human, to be

approached in speech. How else

did you approach Eve

with your addictive 

information? I have paid

bitterly for her

lapse, therefore

attend to me. Tell me

how you live in hell,

what is required in hell, 

for I would send

my beloved there. Not

of course forever:

I may want him

back sometime, not

permanently harmed but

severely chastened,

as he has not been, here

on the surface. What

shall I give him for

protection, what

shield that will not

wholly screen him? You must be

his guide and master: help him

shed his skin

as you do, though in this case

we want him

older underneath, maybe

a little mousy. I feel confident

you understand these

subtleties – you seem

so interested, you do not

slide back under your rock! Oh

I am sure we are somehow related

even if you are not

human; perhaps I have

the soul of a reptile after all.

– Louise Glück (1996)

Hats (20th Century)

Anonymous Milliner, USA
Hat
ca. 1905
embroidered cotton, machine-made cotton lace, silk satin ribbon
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Marie Louise
Hat
1912
silk velvet, grosgrain ribbon, metallic trim
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Toré
Hat
ca. 1915
silk taffeta and silk velvet
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Paul Poiret
Hat
1923
silk and leather
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Anonymous Milliner, Europe
Hat
ca. 1925
silk organza and sequins
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Lily Daché for I. Magnin
Hat
ca. 1938
straw and silk
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Rose Valois
Hat
1945
wool felt, silk velvet, ribbon, feathers
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Elsa Schiaparelli
Hat
1945
silk satin with dyed feathers
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Sally Victor
Hat
1952
wool felt
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

Halston
Hat
1959
dyed fur, rayon ribbon, wool felt
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Adolfo
Hat
ca. 1960
printed silk shantung
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Gretta Netherby
Hat
ca. 1960
silk, cotton and wire
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Anonymous Milliner, Japan
Beach Hat
1964
raffia and straw
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

Gustave Tassell
Hat
ca. 1965
feathers on foundation of silk faille
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Cristóbal Balenciaga
Hat
ca. 1967
silk tulle
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Hubert de Givenchy
Hat
1988
silk satin and acetate velvet
Philadelphia Museum of Art

from Letter to Lord Byron 

Byron, thou should'st be living at this hour!
     What would you do, I wonder, if you were?
Britannia's lost prestige and cash and power,
     Her middle classes show some wear and tear,
     We've learned to bomb each other from the air;
I can't imagine what the Duke of Wellington
Would say about the music of Duke Ellington.

Suggestions have been made that the Teutonic
     Führer-Prinzip would have appealed to you
As being the true heir to the Byronic –
     In keeping with your social status too
     (It has its English converts, fit and few),
That you would, hearing Oswald's honest call,
Be gleichgeschaltet in the Albert Hall.

"Lord Byron at the head of his storm-troopers!"
     Nothing, says science, is impossible:
The Pope may quit to join the Oxford Groupers,
     Nuffield may leave one farthing in his Will,
     There may be someone who trusts Baldwin still,
Someone may think that Empire wines are nice,
There may be people who hear Tauber twice.

You liked to be the center of attention,
     The gay Prince Charming of the fairy story,
Who tamed the Dragon by his intervention.
     In modern warfare, though it's just as gory,
     There isn't any individual glory;
The Prince must be anonymous, observant,
A kind of lab-boy, or a civil servant. 

You never were an Isolationist;
     Injustice you had always hatred for,
And we can hardly blame you, if you missed
     Injustice just outside your lordship's door:
     Nearer than Greece were cotton and the poor.
To-day you might have seen them, might indeed
Have walked in the United Front with Gide,

Against the ogre, dragon, what you will;
     His many shapes and names all turn us pale,
For he's immortal, and to-day he still
     Swinges the horror of his scaly tail.
     Sometimes he seems to sleep, but will not fail
In every age to rear up to defend
Each dying force of history to the end.

– W.H. Auden (1936)