Hanging

CultureIndian

Date1850-1900

MediumCotton; printed, painted, mordant and resist dyed

DimensionsOverall: 87 × 72 inches (220.98 × 182.88 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number56-86

On View

Not on view

Collections

South and Southeast Asian Art

Terms

Exhibition History

Weaving Splendor: Treasures of Asian Textiles, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, September 25, 2021–March 6, 2022, no cat.

Gallery Label

From their creation to sale, painted cottons such as this hanging frequently crossed international borders. This fabric was made in India, a major manufacturer and exporter of cotton. Printed and painted cottons like this hanging were called kalamkari in India and known as chintz in Europe. The decoration, with its heavy use of red dyes and choice of imagery — peacocks and tigers at the bottom — also points to India. These motifs were popular among Iranian consumers. Textile merchants frequently took painted and printed cottons from India to Iran for finishing with extra dyeing and printing.

Provenance

Agnes Naomi Hathaway (née Smith, 1903–1964), Medicine Lodge, Kansas, possibly by 1910s [1];

Purchased from Hathaway by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1956.

[1] In a letter from Mrs. Agnes S. Hathaway to Laurence [S]ickman, NAMA director, dated June 13, 1956, Mrs. Hathaway stated that the Indian textile had been in her family for approximately 45 years, NAMA curatorial files. Mrs. Hathaway did not provide any further details regarding its acquisition.

Published References

Ling-en Lu, Yayoi Shinoda, and Kimberly Masteller, “'Weaving Splendor: Treasures of Asian Textiles" and the Collections of Asian Textiles at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,” Orientations 53, no. 3 (May/June 2022): 29, (repro.).

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