Artwork Page for Rhapsody (No. 700)

Details / Information for Rhapsody (No. 700)

Series Title: Americana Prints

Rhapsody (No. 700)

1927
designed by

John Held, Jr.

(American, 1889–1958)
manufacturer

Stehli Silks Corporation

(United States; Pennsylvania, Lancaster; and New York, New York, 1840–c. 1955)
Culture
America, New York
Medium
Silk crepe; plain weave, roller printed
Measurements
Overall: 47.6 x 53.3 cm (18 3/4 x 21 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of the Stehli Silks Corporation 1928.583
Copyright
Copyright
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
234 Textile Gallery
Print

Description

This silk fabric design, created by popular advertising illustrator and artist John Held in 1927, was part of Stehli Silk Corporation’s Americana Prints, series III. According to Stehli’s promotional material at the time, it was George Gershwin’s 1924 composition Rhapsody in Blue that inspired Held’s textile design, also called Rhapsody. The Americana Prints sought to capture American culture in the 1920s, telling stories about contemporary American life during the Jazz Age, a time in which American music and dance styles gained worldwide popularity. Rhapsody was produced in several difference colors, in addition to the blue version seen here.
Rectangular piece of fabric densely patterned in dark blue and white with an orchestra of musicians playing their instruments. The musicians are white, flat, and stylized, made from circles and rectangles with their instruments shaped with simplified outlines. Fine, blue lines detail their facial features and hairlines. The composition is dominated by the shapes of the largest instruments, a white circle for drums, and blue fin shape for the piano.

Rhapsody (No. 700)

1927

John Held, Jr., Stehli Silks Corporation

(American, 1889–1958), (United States; Pennsylvania, Lancaster; and New York, New York, 1840–c. 1955)
America, New York

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