Embroidery Design by Mabel B Keighley

Illustration: Mabel B Keighley. Applique embroidery panel, 1899.

In 1899 the National Competition of Schools of Art, an annual competition was held at the South Kensington Museum, the future Victoria and Albert Museum. It was held every summer and was a means in which many regional art colleges and schools could introduce their students work to the London public. It served a number of purposes including much needed publicity for the individual colleges concerned as well as the chance for students to gain a mention in specific publications such as The Studio magazine, which covered the event every year. However, perhaps more importantly, there was always the possibility of a commission or assignment with a company, which could well start a potentially long and fruitful career.

The first illustration for this article shows an applique embroidery by Mabel B Keighley which was shown at the summer exhibition for the last year of the nineteenth century. Keighley was a student at Plymouth Technical School, which had been accepting students since 1892. Her entry was thought striking enough to get a mention in The Studio magazine and therefore a welcome publicity coupe for both Plymouth and Keighley.

Although being very much a late nineteenth century design with elements of ornamental Art Nouveau styling, particularly in the woman's costume, the subject matter owes its allegiance and origin to William Morris. Keighley used a quote from Morris collection of poems under the title The Defence of Guenevere in which Guenevere admits to and then analyses her guilt. The quote which was used as a banner of sorts across the top of Keighley's embroidery, read as

Under the may she stoop'd to the crown, 

All was gold, there was nothing of brown;

And the horns blew up in the hall at noon,

Two red roses across the moon.

Guenevere and Lancelot obviously share a moment of pleasure and guilt, but this is perhaps not the crux of the decorative piece. It has much more to do with decoration, pattern and accomplishment. Unfortunately, it cannot be seen in colour although The Studio magazine does assure us that the embroidery was both 'rich and luminous in colour'.

Fortunately, for both Keighley and Plymouth, this was not the only moment that The Studio magazine found to praise the work of Keighley. Four years later The National Competition of Schools of Art came around again and Keighley's embroidered entry, which is the second illustration in this article, was praised by the magazine despite the fact that it considered entries in the needlework genre to be particularly bad, or at least nondescript for 1903.

Illustration: Mabel B Keighley. Applique embroidery hanging, 1903.

Although The Studio considered Keighley's 1903 applique embroidery entry, of which there were two, to be ambitious, which often denotes a less than satisfactory outcome, it also called her work 'praiseworthy' and therefore it can be considered that her work was both liked and admired by the magazine. This 1903 embroidered piece does show a progression in Keighley's creative journey with her work, appearing much paired down to the 1899 example, even appearing to have a distinct contemporary graphic quality. Although this was present in her earlier Guenevere example, particularly when considering the body of both Lancelot and his horse, the 1903 entry, although still inspired by the medieval and to some extent possibly even Morris, though not overtly so, the composition apart from the hem of the woman's dress, is bereft of any obvious decoration or ornament. Much of the piece is made up of simple lines and this makes all the more effective, particularly when considering some of the more interesting contemporary developments in the decorative arts of 1903.

Unfortunately, I have no further word of Keighley after 1903. I don't know if she carried on with her embroidery work after she left college, it would be a shame if she didn't as she showed true promise and was developing creatively into an accomplished and potentially experimental artist that could well have taken the medium of embroidery along an interesting and diverse path. If anyone does have information as to the life of Mabel B Keighley, I would love to hear from them.

Further reading links:

Hand Appliqué with Embroidery

The Art of Elegant Hand Embroidery, Embellishment and Applique

Sophisticated Stitches: Designs for Quilting, Applique, Sashiko & Embroidery
Embroidered Flora & Fauna: Three-Dimensional Textured Embroidery
ART NOUVEAU EMBROIDERY
The Rise & Fall of Art Needlework  
Drawn to Stitch: Line, Drawing, and Mark-Making in Textile Art
The Art of Manipulating Fabric
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NEEDLEWORK (Fully Illustrated)
Zen And the Art of Needlecraft Exploring the Links Between Needlecraft, Spirituality, And Creativity
The Art of Embroidery: Inspirational Stitches, Textures, and Surfaces
The Fine Art of Kimono Embroidery
The Art of Needle-Work, From the Earliest Ages, 3rd Ed. Including Some Notices of the Ancient Historical Tapestries
Royal School of Needlework Embroidery Techniques
Embellishing with Anything: Fiber Art Techniques for Quilts--ATCs, Postcards, Wallhangings & More
Exploring Elizabethan Embroidery (Elizabethan needlework)
In Praise of the Needlewoman: Embroiderers, Knitters, Lacemakers and Weavers in Art

Otto Eckmann's 'Waldteich' Tapestry

 Illustration: Otto Eckmann. Waldteich tapestry design, c1898.

The tapestry design Waldteich which roughly translates into English as Forest Pond, was produced by the German artist and designer Otto Eckmann at the very end of the nineteenth century. In many respects, this particular piece of craftwork could be said to sum up a number of the new ideas and directions that at least a proportion of the German art, design and decoration world was beginning to take during the period that saw the death of the nineteenth and birth of the twentieth century.

Waldteich was a form of reaction against the national style of art and decoration in Germany. Like so many of the nationally approved styles around Europe, they were often conservative, deeply indebted to the patronage of the local aristocracy and therefore tied inextricably with the monetary remuneration from that patronage. Few artists dared to break out of the entrenched system as careers could be extinguished at short notice if an individual was to displease the Emperor and his court.

Official German art and decoration tended towards the imperially pompous and ceremonial, with themes that were often historical in context, though biased towards patriotic nationalism, rather than true historical context. Work was often heavy in ornamentation and affectation. Germany was by no means alone in this formula, with most of the imperially led nations of Europe indulging in one form of 'official' art or another.

Waldteich should therefore be seen within the context of the format of officially sanctioned art and decoration. The tapestry by Eckmann has no clear Germanic context, it is not linked with any form of historic grandeur or perceived ceremonial framework. It is a simple and therefore by its nature, lowly view of a pond, nothing more and nothing less. In many respects, the simplicity of the composition and narrative purposely underlines the cultural and creative shift produced by Eckmann through his work. Its conception changed the relationship between the artist and the state, with the artist working outside of the immediate patronage and national interest. The physical and technical style of the composition is again simple and straightforward with colours being sharp and focused as opposed to so much of the official court sponsored artwork, which dealt with complicated narratives with often mediocre and complex colour palettes. 

The simplistic approach by Eckmann and others was purposeful and while being part of the larger and wide-ranging European Arts & Crafts and early Modernist approach to both art and decoration, the German response taken by Eckmann and his contemporaries was also highly influenced by the specifically English Arts & Crafts movement which had a simplistic and low-key approach to the decorative arts. This in its turn placed the movement at odds with the often affected roles played by the officialdom of court styles. The English approach was very much based on the style of the perceived common man, even though much of the completed work was well outside the financial grasp of many common men. However, this approach often led inextricably towards a more pronounced political dimension, with many English Arts & Crafts followers and leaders moving towards Socialism as a form of counter to the prevailing politics dominated by landed gentry and ultimately the higher circles of the aristocracy. This movement towards at least the recognition of the plight and value of the common man, was by no means lost on the German reformers. 

In some respects, Eckmann and others needed an officially sanctioned style in which to focus and reflect their individual creative differences. This is not to say that Eckmann would not have achieved works such as Waldteich without the guide of an official style in which to counter. However, it is an interesting idea that without an intransigent and exclusive club from which new creative members were often excluded often merely because of lack of social connections, political beliefs and even religious affiliations, much of the formative decorative and art movements of Europe might well have matured in slightly different formats than the ones we know today. That they might well have been the poorer creatively for a lack of antagonistic focus from the established order, is an interesting perspective.

Further reading links:
Before the Bauhaus: Architecture, Politics, and the German State, 1890-1920 (Modern Architecture and Cultural Identity)
The Germans and Their Art: A Troublesome Relationship
Expressionism: A Revolution in German Art (Taschen 25th Anniversary Series)
German Expressionist Woodcuts (Collections of Fine Art in Dover Books)
German Expressionism: The Graphic Impulse
German Expressionism: Documents from the End of the Wilhelmine Empire to the Rise of National Socialism (Documents of Twentieth-Century Art)
The Expressionists (World of Art)
Modern Style: Jugendstil/Art Nouveau 1899-1905 
The Arts & Crafts Movement
The Arts & Crafts Companion
Arts and Crafts Movement (World of Art)
Textiles of the Arts and Crafts Movement
The Arts and Crafts Movement in Europe and America: Design for the Modern World 1880-1920

Rug Design by Joseph Maria Olbrich

Illustration: Joseph Maria Olbrich. Rug design, c1900.

Rug design in the early twentieth century, despite the perceived domination of Art Nouveau styling, came in many different formats; some were obviously more personal based than others, while others veered more towards a regional or historical perspective.

The Austrian architect and designer Joseph Maria Olbrich could be said, to a certain extent at least, to have followed a path that led to a relatively high and unique level of creativity. So much so that his textile work, although showing in parts the penchant in Europe for Art Nouveau, was much more linked to his own ideas and unique parameters concerning decoration and pattern work.

Olbrich produced work in a number of textile disciplines including embroidery and rug design. The two rug designs illustrating this article were produced in about 1900 and clearly show the nature of some of Olbrich's personal work during this period. He had a confident and free hand and was unencumbered with affectation or some of the more complex and invasive stylisations of Art Nouveau, whether German and Austrian or indeed French and Belgian led. However, despite the pattern work in these two examples seeming to be led by Olbrich's own personality, both are still very much inspired by nature and the larger natural world than they are by any man made ideals.

Although by no means necessarily universal in scope, the human preponderance for the natural world as both inspiration and guide has dominated many aspects of the human development of decoration and pattern. It would seem inconceivable not to have nature in all its aspects, at the heart of our decorative tendencies, so much so that it seems of little value to mention it in the first place. However, to recognise the debt humans owe to the natural world that always surrounds us, and then to see it channelled through the abstract and semi-abstract pattern work of designers across the generations, can still hold a fascination despite the intervening millennia.

Illustration: Joseph Maria Olbrich. Rug design, c1900.

Olbrich has used nature to his own effect and instils a wonder in the shape and tone of his work that appears effortless, but rarely ever is. His rug designs appear to be art works in their own right and unlike a number of carpet and rug designs of the later nineteenth century; these pieces seem rarely to have been intended as subservient accessories to an overall scheme. While it would have been good to have seen these pieces in their original colour schemes in order to understand how Olbrich used colour and tonal variation in the finished pieces, they are still interesting in their monochromatic format as the pattern outlines can be appreciated in their own right, rather than playing a subservient and sometimes confusing role to that of colour.

The two rug designs are excellent examples of Austrian decorative work from the end and very beginning of the twentieth century. They give at least some indication of the genuinely unique cultural achievement that was Vienna during this period. While many parts of Europe were producing standard Art Nouveau formats, Viennese designers were beginning to stretch the boundaries of the European decorative arts to both see what was achievable, but also perhaps more importantly, in order to find a new format for a new century. That Austrian decorative work during this period used the unique format of the artist and designer, along with their own creative insight into the natural world, pattern work and their sense of historical perspective as regards the cultural attachment of the artist to their own and shared past, set up a distinct and special interlude in European decorative history, one that was to have a far reaching effect on the future role of Modernism and twentieth century decoration in general.

That Olbrich played a partial but central role in this re-designing of a format cannot be denied. He was one of a group of German and Austrian architects, designers and artists that through their separate but shared creative uniqueness, have given us a wealth of work as well as a fascinating but still relevant vocabulary of decoration and pattern that still holds our fascination to this day.

Further reading links:
Joseph Maria Olbrich
Joseph Maria Olbrich Architecture
JOSEPH MARIA OLBRICH: ART TO
Olbrich: Ideas
JOSEPH MARIA OLBRICH: Architecture---Complete Reprint of the Original Plates 1901-1914
Art Nouveau (Midsize)
Vienna 1900
Klimt, Schiele, Moser, Kokoschka: Vienna 1900
Birth of the Modern: Style and Identity in Vienna 1900
Vienna 1900: Art, Life & Culture
Fin-De-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture
Wittgenstein's Vienna
Freud, Dora, and Vienna 1900
Vienna 1900 (Memoires)
Vienna 1900: The Architecture of Otto Wagner
Good Living Street: Portrait of a Patron Family, Vienna 1900
Vienna 1900: Art, Architecture & Design
Art in Vienna
Rethinking Vienna 1900 (Austrian History, Culture and Society, 3)
Sacred Spring: God and the Birth of Modernism in Fin De Siecle Vienna
Egon Schiele and His Contemporaries: Austrian Painting and Drawing from 1900 to 1930 from the Leopold Collection, Vienna
Vienna 1850-1930: Architecture
Vienna's Golden Years of Music, 1850-1900 (Essay index reprint series)