Abstract Patterns of 1900

Rene Beauclair 1900

It is important to remember that the idea of abstract pattern and design is not a twentieth century invention, but has been used in one form or another since the creation of pattern in early cultures. Having said that, it has often had to compete with various forms of realism and realistic interpretation within the textile industry.

Rene Beauclair 1900

The pattern work shown here is from a portfolio of design ideas by Rene Beauclair and was produced in 1900. It is interesting that amongst all of the wide ranging uses found for the more obvious looking flora and fauna that was typical of the Art Nouveau movement, Beauclair should also see a use for a much more abstract, close up style of pattern, with no obvious or familiar reference points.

Rene Beauclair 1900

The colours are limited to chocolate, pink and white, and in some cases just chocolate and white. These colour schemes were obviously meant as a guide only, and it would be up to the individual to interpret Beauclair's design work, but the limited palette and the graphic quality of the designs point towards the bold, abstract pattern work of the next few decades, which was used very effectively in the textile and wallpaper industry during the 1920s and 1930s, under the Art Deco umbrella.

Rene Beauclair 1900

These abstract designs were not as common in France, at the turn of the century, as they were perhaps in Germany and Austria, where the Wiener Werkstatte and particularly the Deutsche Werkbund were to take the idea of abstract pattern work to the extremes of mechanical uniformity, where small scale regular motifs, would make up all-over patterns that were meant to reflect the unresting and exact labour of the machine. The fact that some of the textile work was actually produced by hand, particularly with regard to the Wiener Werkstatte, wasn't seen as important, it was the idea behind the pattern that mattered. The inconsistency between pattern and printing could be lived with.

Rene Beauclair 1900

Although Beauclair's pattern work does not really reflect the narrow parameters of the machine repeat, it does reflect a growing interest in the small scale repeat pattern of Germany and Austria, rather than the rambling large repeat so loved by William Morris and a large proportion of the British Arts & Crafts inspired design world.

The style of this set of abstract patterns was to become much more important to the textile and wallpaper design industries, and much more familiar to the general public, as the twentieth century progressed. Although there was an element of abstract pattern work to be seen at the turn of the twentieth century, it tended to be a small percentage of total output. However, the new century was to take the idea of the abstract design and popularise it to such an extent, through the many distinctive styles and eras that made up the century, that it now seems as natural a part of the pattern making business as any other.

Rene Beauclair 1900