1888, Edinburgh

1888, Edinburgh

Identifier
T.422-1976
Acquisition
Given by Mrs H. V. Bartholomew
Carried out by
Traquair, Phoebe Anna (http://data.silknow.org/activity/designer)
Collection
Technique
Depiction
Dimension
29.200000762939453 cm (length)
52 cm (width)
Production time
Production place
Type of object

Description

Fan 'The Sleeping Beauty,' painted with watercolours on silk and with ivory sticks, designed and made by Phoebe Anna Traquair, Edinburgh, 1888 Fan painted with watercolours on silk. It has a plain silk back. The design consists of a child-like sleeping beauty in the centre approached by Cupid, whilst around her young Pans are playing. Their horns and pipes are picked out in gold paint. The sticks and guards are of ivory with silver mounts on the guards. There is a plain metal loop to take a ribbon. 'The Sleeping Beauty' is written beneath the sleeping female. By the 1880s and 1890s, fans were optional accessories. However, they continued to be mass-produced in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and materials. A number of artists and designers working in the Arts and Crafts style saw that the fan leaf provided an interesting surface for design. Phoebe Traquair painted this fan. She was Scotland’s foremost artist in the Arts and Crafts movement and worked in a remarkable range of media. These included mural painting, embroidery, manuscript illumination and enamelling. This fan leaf depicts the story of the Sleeping Beauty. Like many of her other works, it has a mysterious dreamlike quality.