2005
Princely Interiors
Furnishing Textiles of the 18th Century

24 April – 13 November 2005
daily 2 p.m. – 5.30 p.m.

The focus of the new special exhibition at the Abegg Foundation is the luxurious textiles once used for decorating princely residences. The displays include outstanding examples of furnishing textiles, such as the splendid wall coverings used to decorate the apartments of Empress Joséphine of France and Catherine the Great of Russia.

Textiles played a central part in interior decoration during the eighteenth century. They were used for wall coverings, curtains, bed hangings, paravents, fire-screens and for upholstering furniture, with the aim of creating harmonious interiors.

The exhibition reveals the great variety of materials, techniques and designs of textiles from this period. Embroideries, leather wall coverings and painted Chinese silks are on display, along with woven silks and woolen textiles. The highlights of the exhibition include richly patterned silks associated with Europe’s most powerful ruling houses.

Texte français sur demande

* * *

The Abegg Foundation’s new special exhibition Princely Interiors – Furnishing Textiles of the 18th Century presents some of the luxurious textiles once used for interior decorating. They include outstanding examples of furnishing textiles, such as the splendid wall coverings used to decorate the apartments of Catherine the Great of Russia and the Empress Joséphine of France.

Textiles played a central part in interior decoration during the eighteenth century. They were used for wall coverings, curtains, bed hangings and screens, as well as for upholstering furniture, with the aim of creating harmonious interiors. Furnishing textiles of that era are only rarely to be found in their original locations nowadays, because of their fragility and because of changes in taste. The Abegg Foundation’s collection contains some 200 textiles intended for decorating the interiors of princely residences. A selection of these – dating from 1670 to 1800 – is on display in the new special exhibition.

A GREAT DIVERSITY
The exhibition reveals the great variety of materials, techniques and designs that were used in creating textiles intended for interior decoration. Woven silk and woollen textiles are on display, along with embroideries, leather panels, flock wall hangings and painted Chinese silks. The choice of materials and techniques was dictated by the planned decorative scheme; tradition and climate also often played a part. Leather was popular in Spain, whereas in countries with colder climates, such as England, woollen fabrics are known to have been favoured. Flock hangings were used to imitate expensive silk velvets. They were made by dusting finely minced wool fibres over a backing material that had been treated with an adhesive substance. Painted silks from China were also very popular. Their exotic and fanciful representations of colourful flowers, birds and butterflies suited them for decorating bedchambers or pleasure palaces. Trimmings and tassels were important finishing touches for interior decoration schemes. The complexity and wealth of forms that are to be found in this textile genre are highlighted by a richly-ornamented passementerie border on show at the Abegg Foundation.

UNIFIED DECORATING SCHEMES
If was fashionable in the eighteenth century to use the same fabric throughout a room, or to ensure that the colours and patterns of the various textile elements were coordinated. These en suite decorative schemes could entail specially commissioned, made-to-measure elements, as the motifs on wall coverings were often unsuitably large for the size and shape of, for instance, the seat or back of a chair. The pattern would be adapted to suit the shape of the furniture. A decorative concept could also include embroideries that were commissioned to complement the wall coverings. Only princes and wealthy nobles could afford these unified decorative schemes using textiles. As status symbols, they were employed to express the power, wealth and social prestige of a house.

PRINCELY PATRONS
The highlights of the 2005 special exhibition include elaborately patterned silk textiles that can be linked to Europe’s most powerful ruling houses. Catherine the Great of Russia, for instance, favoured a fabric with pheasants and swans on a yellow background and had an entire salon at her summer residence decorated with it. Another notable example is a silk, with a cream-coloured ground, on which foliage frames narrow oval spaces containing motifs such as partridges or musical instruments. This silk was woven in 1789, possibly for Queen Marie Antoinette. It was only used in 1805, however, to decorate the bedchamber of the Empress Joséphine at the Palace of Fontainebleau.