Pair of Curtains
c. 1957 (made), 1957 - 1963 (sold)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
Born to a Jewish family in Poland in 1894, Katerina Wilczynski trained as an artist in Germany and Paris and first found success working in poster design and book illustration. In 1930 she gained a Prix de Rome scholarship and relocated to that city, where her work included drawings of churches and monuments. In 1938, the new racial laws forced her to leave. After arriving in London in 1939 she made drawings recording war damaged buildings, some of which are now held by the Imperial War Museum. After the war, Wilczynski, familiarly known as Katchen, travelled widely, recording her journeys in sketches. During this period she exhibited her drawings in London galleries and continued to work as an illustrator of others’ books and her own, always signing her work ‘WILC’. A commissioned group of portraits of writers, including Camus, Sartre, T.S. Eliot and Herbert Read, for a proposed book ‘European Portraits’, was never published but survives in the Bibliotèque Nationale and National Portrait Gallery. Further work is held in the Ashmolean Museum and public collections in Dresden and Cologne. The V&A hold eleven drawings by Wilcznyski, including three of Delphi dated to various years in the 1960s. Wilczynski died in London in 1978.
Design of the textile
Wilczynski drew extremely rapidly, without preliminary drawings, a technique which helped her hold fast to intuition, preferring this to close copying from nature. This speed endeared her to her portraiture models and worked well for recording street and theatre scenes. Unusually, she developed a system of using both right and left hands to draw, the right hand starting the drawing and the left adding shape and character. Having been fascinated by Greek myth since childhood, from 1952 onwards Wilczynski started to make extended trips to Greece where the connection between temples and nature, sculpture and human figures appealed to her and enabled her to place her subjects in ‘real’ settings, frequently superimposing figures onto the buildings they inhabited. Her publications based on these trips include ‘Daphnis and Chloë’ (Bruno Cassirer, 1946), and ‘Homage to Greece’ (Macmillan, 1964), her most successful publication in which her fascination for Delphi is particularly marked. The textile design retains the spirit of these rapidly executed topographical sketches, and like them is labelled with the place name written boldly above the image.
Design of the textile
Wilczynski drew extremely rapidly, without preliminary drawings, a technique which helped her hold fast to intuition, preferring this to close copying from nature. This speed endeared her to her portraiture models and worked well for recording street and theatre scenes. Unusually, she developed a system of using both right and left hands to draw, the right hand starting the drawing and the left adding shape and character. Having been fascinated by Greek myth since childhood, from 1952 onwards Wilczynski started to make extended trips to Greece where the connection between temples and nature, sculpture and human figures appealed to her and enabled her to place her subjects in ‘real’ settings, frequently superimposing figures onto the buildings they inhabited. Her publications based on these trips include ‘Daphnis and Chloë’ (Bruno Cassirer, 1946), and ‘Homage to Greece’ (Macmillan, 1964), her most successful publication in which her fascination for Delphi is particularly marked. The textile design retains the spirit of these rapidly executed topographical sketches, and like them is labelled with the place name written boldly above the image.
Object details
Object type | |
Parts | This object consists of 2 parts.
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Materials and techniques | |
Brief description | Pair of curtains made with Sanderson 'Delphi' fabric, designed by Katerina Wilczynski |
Physical description | Pair of curtains, white cotton with printed pattern in black |
Dimensions |
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Credit line | Gift of Erica Barrett |
Object history | The provenance of these curtains tells a fascinating story. They are the gift of Erica Barrett (née Erica Kurz), the daughter of refugee art historians, Otto and Hilde Kurz. After being attacked by Nazis in Vienna in 1934, Otto Kurz moved to Hamburg where he joined the Warburg Library. He relocated to London with the library, becoming Librarian when it was incorporated into London University. He was instrumental in the creation of a network of wartime émigrés and refugees, generally of literary and artistic leaning, which offered mutual support in both social and professional matters. Through shared artist and art-dealer friends, Katerina Wilczynski became a close friend of Otto and Hilde, who helped her with the practicalities of settling in England and establishing herself as an artist. The couple tirelessly promoted and collected her work. Hilde ordered the ‘Delphi’ textile from John Lewis as soon as it became available early in 1957. The material was made into curtains for their London home by the then 16-year-old Erica, on a Pfaff treadle sewing machine, using Coates Sylko thread and Rufflette gathering tape. The curtains are thus a physical record of the bonds of the émigré network in London. |
Production | The textile was not designed for Sanderson but was one of a range of modern textiles purchased ready printed from independent producers, to be included as part of their in-house collection. This ‘buying-in’ was common practice for the company at the time and sometimes extended to whole ranges purchased from European and American producers as part of its drive to extend and diversify its range. Wilczynski’s design was stocked between c.1957 and 1963 and was sold through the Sanderson Berners Street and other showrooms priced at 19 shillings 11 pence per yard in May 1957. The material was made into curtains for the Kurz's London home by 16-year-old Erica, on a Pfaff treadle sewing machine, using Coates Sylko thread and Rufflette gathering tape. |
Summary | Born to a Jewish family in Poland in 1894, Katerina Wilczynski trained as an artist in Germany and Paris and first found success working in poster design and book illustration. In 1930 she gained a Prix de Rome scholarship and relocated to that city, where her work included drawings of churches and monuments. In 1938, the new racial laws forced her to leave. After arriving in London in 1939 she made drawings recording war damaged buildings, some of which are now held by the Imperial War Museum. After the war, Wilczynski, familiarly known as Katchen, travelled widely, recording her journeys in sketches. During this period she exhibited her drawings in London galleries and continued to work as an illustrator of others’ books and her own, always signing her work ‘WILC’. A commissioned group of portraits of writers, including Camus, Sartre, T.S. Eliot and Herbert Read, for a proposed book ‘European Portraits’, was never published but survives in the Bibliotèque Nationale and National Portrait Gallery. Further work is held in the Ashmolean Museum and public collections in Dresden and Cologne. The V&A hold eleven drawings by Wilcznyski, including three of Delphi dated to various years in the 1960s. Wilczynski died in London in 1978. Design of the textile Wilczynski drew extremely rapidly, without preliminary drawings, a technique which helped her hold fast to intuition, preferring this to close copying from nature. This speed endeared her to her portraiture models and worked well for recording street and theatre scenes. Unusually, she developed a system of using both right and left hands to draw, the right hand starting the drawing and the left adding shape and character. Having been fascinated by Greek myth since childhood, from 1952 onwards Wilczynski started to make extended trips to Greece where the connection between temples and nature, sculpture and human figures appealed to her and enabled her to place her subjects in ‘real’ settings, frequently superimposing figures onto the buildings they inhabited. Her publications based on these trips include ‘Daphnis and Chloë’ (Bruno Cassirer, 1946), and ‘Homage to Greece’ (Macmillan, 1964), her most successful publication in which her fascination for Delphi is particularly marked. The textile design retains the spirit of these rapidly executed topographical sketches, and like them is labelled with the place name written boldly above the image. |
Collection | |
Accession number | T.2441:1, 2-2021 |
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Record created | October 28, 2021 |
Record URL |
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