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Vlisco, textile manufacturer

Eclat de Nature, 2009

Description

Maker

  • Vlisco, 1846 - present, Dutch, textile manufacturer

Title

Eclat de Nature

Year

2009

Medium

Cotton; machine wax block print

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • cotton

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Label 1: Guaranteed Real Dutch Design/ Wax Block Prints/ Printed in Holland. Label 2: 160/A1116V 760/03.1773 100% Cotton 6 Yards 375652 Printed by Vlisco in Holland

Place

Netherlands

Type

  • Textiles

Credit

Georgianna Sayles Aldrich Fund

Object Number

2009.68.1

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Queen of the Insects

December 11, 2009 - May 9, 2010

Drawing from Indonesian traditions of wax-resist printing, these two textiles, in which the butterfly tumbles in and out of lush vegetation and blossoms, share similar imagery, patterning, and technique, but different histories. Many cultures use the art of wax resist to create pattern on textiles. The Japanese textile is an example of katazome, a stencil-resist technique whereby rice-flour paste, mochiko, is handapplied to all areas of the textile meant to remain white before it is dyed. (A group of stencils utilizing this traditional printing process may be viewed in the cases on the far end of this gallery.) The Dutch textile represents a mechanized version of the resist-printing technique using wax rather than rice paste as the blocking agent. This manner of printing, widely known by its Indonesian name, batik, came to the attention of Dutch East India Company merchants in the early 17th century and has been refined and mechanized over the last four hundred years. Today, Vlisco, the firm that produced the contemporary Dutch textile, manufactures such wax-resist textiles not for the Dutch or Indonesian market, but for export to West Africa. The Japanese example, on the other hand, reflects the influence of Chinese design and technical tradition. According to provenance documents, it may have traveled to America on the first cargo out of Japan after the 1854 Treaty of Kanagawa, under Admiral Perry. Such textiles flooded the Western marketplace in the mid-19th century, spurring a new movement in design known as Japonisme.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in Copyright. This object is Eclat de Nature with the accession number of 2009.68.1. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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