Textile Design of Vertical Stripes of Overlapping Scales Simulating Tie-Dye Framed by Alternating Vertical Strings of Squares

Textile Design of Vertical Stripes of Overlapping Scales Simulating Tie-Dye Framed by Alternating Vertical Strings of Squares

Anonymous, Alsatian, 19th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rectangular sheet of paper with a textile design from a group, dated 1840, made in Mulhouse, Alsace, which was an important nineteenth-century center for textile production in the Haut-Rhin region of France. The design consists of vertical stripes of overlapping abstract scales of dark reddish-brown color simulating a tie-dye textile, over a light tan base. The stripes are framed by alternating vertical strings of four squares of white color outlined in black. Three repetitions of the stripes of scales are rendered, the other two are incomplete, showing only the pencil traces of the outline of the pattern.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Textile Design of Vertical Stripes of Overlapping Scales Simulating Tie-Dye Framed by Alternating Vertical Strings of SquaresTextile Design of Vertical Stripes of Overlapping Scales Simulating Tie-Dye Framed by Alternating Vertical Strings of SquaresTextile Design of Vertical Stripes of Overlapping Scales Simulating Tie-Dye Framed by Alternating Vertical Strings of SquaresTextile Design of Vertical Stripes of Overlapping Scales Simulating Tie-Dye Framed by Alternating Vertical Strings of SquaresTextile Design of Vertical Stripes of Overlapping Scales Simulating Tie-Dye Framed by Alternating Vertical Strings of Squares

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.