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Rug design

Maker

Attributed to
(artist)
1885-1978

Alternatively attributed to
(artist)
1879-1961

Title

Rug design

Date of Production

1913 - 1915

Medium

pen and black ink, bodycolour on wove paper; whole design is over a grid composed in black ink with graphite tick marks added down left edge of grid; on verso is brown wash in square design, likely an offset, not a deliberate drawing

Dimensions

Height: 60.5 cm
Width: 31.2 cm

Accession Number

D.1958.PD.5

Mode of Acquisition

Pamela Diamand, gift, 1958

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

© Estate of Vanessa Bell. All rights reserved, DACS 2023. © Estate of Duncan Grant. All rights reserved, DACS 2023

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords





Label Text

Rugs were one of the Omega Workshops’ specialities. Vibrant and colourful, Omega rugs were unlike anything available at the time. Clients usually selected a rug from a portfolio of designs such as this one at the Omega’s premises in Fitzroy Square, Bloomsbury.

Although this drawing is on squared paper, and names of colours have been noted down, presumably as an indication to the manufacturer, it is an artist’s sketch rather than a finished technical drawing for production. No rug after this design is known.

Provenance

Roger Fry (1866-1934); by descent to his daughter Pamela Diamand; Pamela Diamand Gift 1958

Exhibition History

Bloomsbury Spirit, Artipelag, Stockholm, 23/03/2018-30/09/2018

Picasso, Braque, Leger and the International Language of Cubism, Complesso del Vittoriano & Rome & Italy, 07/03/2013-30/06/2013

Beyond Bloomsbury - Designs of the Omega Workshops 1913-19, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 18/06/2009-20/09/2009 ...More

Roger Fry and the Omega Workshops, The Courtauld Gallery (Prints and Drawings Study Room), 01/08/1990-02/12/1990 ...Less

Literature

Beyond Bloomsbury - Designs of the Omega Workshops 1913-19, Courtauld Gallery, London, 2009
cat. no. 15
ill. on p. 99

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Recto, all graphite and artist’s hand: upper margin: “Black green straw grey maroon Blue”; running vertically down left margin at regular intervals, descending from “186” to “16” with “122” added between “126” and “116”; all three green areas labelled “green”; all three grey areas labelled “grey”; central yellow area labelled “straw”; maroon area at lower right labelled “maroon”; various numbers inscribed within grids across the whole drawing. Verso: lower right, blue crayon: “Please write [the former word written over the word “name” which was crossed out] colors / on pattern [former word underlined]”; lower left, blue ink: “HHF. 263.” and added after in graphite: “/5”.

Collector's mark: none.

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