Water-lily textile

Associated Artists

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This piece of "shadow silk" with the water-lily design in golden yellow varies somewhat from the two other pieces in the collection (2002.355.2; 28.70.12); here a slightly different weaving technique has distorted the warp-printed image even further. The watery look is part of the design’s intended effect: to suggest the movement of leaves and blossoms as they float on the water’s surface. To make "shadow silks" a special warp-printing technique was employed: the warp (the vertical threads) was preprinted with the pattern beforehand, and when the solid-colored horizontal weft threads were woven in, the designs naturally fell slightly out of alignment.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art