Painted fan with a design of feathers and three medallions
Charles Edward Conder
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
This large hand-painted fan was made by the British artist Charles Edward Conder. He began making fans relatively late in his career in the 1890s, a period which marked the transition from historicism to Art Nouveau in the arts. This fan exemplifies this transition in the combination of historical Rococo motifs and Art Nouveau elements.The design consists of three medallions, which are placed against a background of feathers and other ornaments. The three oval medallions or compartments are filled with depictions of women. The central horizontal oval appears to show a veiled woman in a black dress, while the outer two vertical ovals respectively show a woman out in nature, and a nude female figure. The medallions are surrounded by pink floral edge, which stands out from the background decorations in green, grey and blue. Various outlines are highlighted by a dotted pattern, which might have been meant to be finished in gold and/or silver. The dominance of ornament over figures in this design is unusual for Conder, of whom another fan, known as "The Spanish Piazza" is kept in the museum's collection (accession number 12.10).
Drawings and Prints
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
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.