Not currently on display at the V&A

The Sleeping Beauty

Fan
1888 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

By the 1880s and 1890s, fans were optional accessories. However, they continued to be mass-produced in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and materials. A number of artists and designers working in the Arts and Crafts style saw that the fan leaf provided an interesting surface for design. Phoebe Traquair painted this fan. She was Scotland’s foremost artist in the Arts and Crafts movement and worked in a remarkable range of media. These included mural painting, embroidery, manuscript illumination and enamelling. This fan leaf depicts the story of the Sleeping Beauty. Like many of her other works, it has a mysterious dreamlike quality.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleThe Sleeping Beauty (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Painted with watercolour on silk, silver-tipped ivory
Brief description
Fan 'The Sleeping Beauty,' painted with watercolours on silk and with ivory sticks, designed and made by Phoebe Anna Traquair, Edinburgh, 1888
Physical description
Fan painted with watercolours on silk. It has a plain silk back. The design consists of a child-like sleeping beauty in the centre approached by Cupid, whilst around her young Pans are playing. Their horns and pipes are picked out in gold paint. The sticks and guards are of ivory with silver mounts on the guards. There is a plain metal loop to take a ribbon. 'The Sleeping Beauty' is written beneath the sleeping female.
Dimensions
  • Length: 29.2cm
  • Open width: 52cm
Marks and inscriptions
'The Sleeping Beauty' (Painted beneath the sleeping figure)
Credit line
Given by Mrs H. V. Bartholomew
Summary
By the 1880s and 1890s, fans were optional accessories. However, they continued to be mass-produced in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and materials. A number of artists and designers working in the Arts and Crafts style saw that the fan leaf provided an interesting surface for design. Phoebe Traquair painted this fan. She was Scotland’s foremost artist in the Arts and Crafts movement and worked in a remarkable range of media. These included mural painting, embroidery, manuscript illumination and enamelling. This fan leaf depicts the story of the Sleeping Beauty. Like many of her other works, it has a mysterious dreamlike quality.
Collection
Accession number
T.422-1976

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Record createdSeptember 5, 2001
Record URL
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