The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Primavera [II]

Primavera [II]

c. 1920–25
designer

Josef Frank

(Swedish, born Austria, 1885–1967)
manufacturer

Haus & Garten

(Austrian, est. 1925)
linen: tabby weave, block printed, loom width
Overall: 95.7 x 77.9 cm (37 11/16 x 30 11/16 in.)
Educational Purchase Fund 1937.184
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The beds of sprouting flowers are meant to evoke rejuvenation and spring, or "primavera" in Italian.

Description

Though designed in Austria, this textile was block-printed by the English company G. P. and J. Baker based in London. In block printing every color requires a separate block, indicating that production of this design required 35 or more blocks. The design is now screenprinted, produced, and marketed by the Stockholm-based firm Svenskt Tenn. The name is derived from the Italian Renaissance painting Primavera by Sandro Botticelli dating to the late 1400s, which Josef Frank saw while visiting Florence. Botticelli’s painting features a forest floor strewn with identifiable wildflowers, an approach that Frank incorporated whimsically by arranging recognizable tulips, daisies, and violets, among other species.
  • 1937
    Likely purchased by Mrs. Ruth F. Ruggles in Vienna, Austria from "Haus & Garten"
  • See "December, 1937." Education Department Annual Report, 1937, CMA Archives.
  • Imagining the Garden. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 24, 2015-March 6, 2016).
  • {{cite web|title=Primavera [II]|url=false|author=Josef Frank, Haus & Garten|year=c. 1920–25|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1937.184