Textile Design with Vertical Rows of Paisley Motifs Flanked by Interlacing Branches with Stylized Flowers and Leaves Separated by Stripes

Textile Design with Vertical Rows of Paisley Motifs Flanked by Interlacing Branches with Stylized Flowers and Leaves Separated by Stripes

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 is made up of vertical rows of paisley motifs flanked by two interlacing branches with stylized flowers and leaves separated by stripes of green color over a burgundy ground. The paisley leaves are of red color and outlined with white, decorated with stylized flowers with petals of tan color and stems with leaves of black color. The interlacing branches are of tan color, the stylized flowers of red colors, and the stylized leaves of black color.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Textile Design with Vertical Rows of Paisley Motifs Flanked by Interlacing Branches with Stylized Flowers and Leaves Separated by StripesTextile Design with Vertical Rows of Paisley Motifs Flanked by Interlacing Branches with Stylized Flowers and Leaves Separated by StripesTextile Design with Vertical Rows of Paisley Motifs Flanked by Interlacing Branches with Stylized Flowers and Leaves Separated by StripesTextile Design with Vertical Rows of Paisley Motifs Flanked by Interlacing Branches with Stylized Flowers and Leaves Separated by StripesTextile Design with Vertical Rows of Paisley Motifs Flanked by Interlacing Branches with Stylized Flowers and Leaves Separated by Stripes

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.