The Whole Cottage
Textile Artwork
1991
1991
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Mary Cozens-Walker initially trained as a fine artist and went on to study textiles at Goldsmiths’ College where she consolidated her own very personalised creative approach. Her images are created by stitch and paint and are often incorporated into found objects or a three-dimensional structure. In her work, the everyday becomes a rich subject matter and is conveyed in all its engaging intimacy.
In 1973, Cozens-Walker and her husband, the artist Anthony Green, purchased one half of a cottage in rural Cambridgeshire as a bolthole to escape to with their two small daughters. In 1981 their portion of the cottage became the subject of her first ambitious stitched work. In 1991, to celebrate their purchase of the other half of the cottage, she produced ‘The Whole Cottage’. When closed it presents the plain outer form of a typical English cottage with its catslide roof and jumble of chimneys. A small brass cabin hook allows the cottage to swing open at the middle, taking the viewer into the heart of the cottage and the personalised interior of the home. This is depicted in minute detail: yellow flowers in a vase tumble over the tablecloth, a bedspread slips from the bed under which is a discarded pair of shoes. A variety of stitches, knots, couched thread and paint reproduce the range of surfaces within the cottage: flaking plaster, brick, plastic light switch and timber beams.
In 1973, Cozens-Walker and her husband, the artist Anthony Green, purchased one half of a cottage in rural Cambridgeshire as a bolthole to escape to with their two small daughters. In 1981 their portion of the cottage became the subject of her first ambitious stitched work. In 1991, to celebrate their purchase of the other half of the cottage, she produced ‘The Whole Cottage’. When closed it presents the plain outer form of a typical English cottage with its catslide roof and jumble of chimneys. A small brass cabin hook allows the cottage to swing open at the middle, taking the viewer into the heart of the cottage and the personalised interior of the home. This is depicted in minute detail: yellow flowers in a vase tumble over the tablecloth, a bedspread slips from the bed under which is a discarded pair of shoes. A variety of stitches, knots, couched thread and paint reproduce the range of surfaces within the cottage: flaking plaster, brick, plastic light switch and timber beams.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Title | The Whole Cottage (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | The interior of the cottage is depicted in two intricate embroideries on calico. Satin stitch, in various arrangements, is used extensively to achieve different surface textures and visual effects: in clusters of varying thread tone for the hanging gathers of the bed valances; in precise lines for the wooden planks of the cottage doors and for the spines of books. Long stitches, in places up to 4cms long, are used where a sense of length is needed, for example door frames and timber sections. Single long stitches on a black background create a sense of reflection from the glass panes of the dresser. French knots are used for knobs on the bedside cabinet and the dark chest of drawers, bullion stitch for the more substantial metal handles of the wood burner. Bullion stitch is also used to create the 3-dimensional tumbling bright yellow flowers. Carpet, rugs and floorcoverings are rendered in a variety of techniques: real wool pile for the rug under the round table, French knot for wall-to-wall carpet and satin stitch in alternating direction in two colour tones for the perspectival rendering of the bedroom diaper rush matting. Couching stitch in white thread delineates the mortar between the bricks in the attic chimney. The sitting room curtains are in chain stitch as is the upholstery of the armchair standing below. It is also used in multiple directions for the pink/yellow bedspread. Shadow thrown by furniture and in the corners of rooms is often achieved through a combination of paint on the exposed ground fabric and tiny speckled stitches. Stumpwork method is used to create three dimensions on the bed pillow and the falling folds of the table cloth. |
| Brief description | Textile artwork, 'The Whole Cottage', wood, gloss house paint, calico, stranded cottons, hand stitch, brass closure fitment, Mary Cozens-Walker (1938 – 2020), 1991, Cambridgeshire, England |
| Physical description | Miniature wooden form of cottage, painted in orange paint, opens to reveal an embroidered interior on both sides. |
| Dimensions |
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| Content description | The embroideries depict Mary Cozens-Walker and her husband, the painter Anthony Green, relaxing at home. |
| Production type | Unique |
| Credit line | Given by Anthony Green |
| Object history | Made by Cozens-Walker to celebrate the purchase of the second half of the cottage which the artist and her family had owned since 1973. Exhibited in 1992 in solo show at Staempfli gallery, New York |
| Association | |
| Summary | Mary Cozens-Walker initially trained as a fine artist and went on to study textiles at Goldsmiths’ College where she consolidated her own very personalised creative approach. Her images are created by stitch and paint and are often incorporated into found objects or a three-dimensional structure. In her work, the everyday becomes a rich subject matter and is conveyed in all its engaging intimacy. In 1973, Cozens-Walker and her husband, the artist Anthony Green, purchased one half of a cottage in rural Cambridgeshire as a bolthole to escape to with their two small daughters. In 1981 their portion of the cottage became the subject of her first ambitious stitched work. In 1991, to celebrate their purchase of the other half of the cottage, she produced ‘The Whole Cottage’. When closed it presents the plain outer form of a typical English cottage with its catslide roof and jumble of chimneys. A small brass cabin hook allows the cottage to swing open at the middle, taking the viewer into the heart of the cottage and the personalised interior of the home. This is depicted in minute detail: yellow flowers in a vase tumble over the tablecloth, a bedspread slips from the bed under which is a discarded pair of shoes. A variety of stitches, knots, couched thread and paint reproduce the range of surfaces within the cottage: flaking plaster, brick, plastic light switch and timber beams. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | T.101-2022 |
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| Record created | May 5, 2022 |
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