Anon. Berlin Woolwork Handpainted Floral Design

An original mid-19th-century gouache painting Berlin Woolwork Handpainted Floral Design.

This wonderfully vivid and highly decorative gouache painting is a 19th-century design for a Berlin woolwork embroidery. Incorporating roses and morning glory flowers, it is one of a pair of framed floral designs that we have for sale (see stock number JZ-173), dating from around the 1840s or 1850s.

Berlin woolwork developed in Germany in the early 1800s as a new form of needlecraft in which embroiderers followed a pattern drawn out on a paper grid. As such, it played an interesting role in the modernisation and democratisation of embroidery: designs could be more widely disseminated and required far less technical ability for the embroiderer than traditional free-form embroidery.

By the mid-19th century, Berlin woolwork became celebrated for its particularly vivid colours—clear, bright shades, pure whites, and delicate pastels—with the development of synthetic aniline dyes. This luminosity is evident in the present design: the green almost neon and conveying a modernity that belies the painting's age.

The paper grid is printed by the Berlin pattern maker Z.A. Grünthal and is lettered in German below the grid. The printed grid is marked with the design so that it can be hand-coloured. The handpainting is the work of a member of the Leveson-Gower family of Bill Hill in Wokingham, Berkshire. This painting is signed 'A. [or D.?] Leveson Gower' and its pair is signed 'Mrs Leveson Gower, Bill Hill, Wokingham, Berks'. At this time, Mrs Leveson Gower would most likely refer to Mrs Charlotte Gertrude Elizabeth Leveson-Gower (1807–1876), who married John Leveson-Gower of Bill Hill.

Presented in a smart reproduction ebony-and-gold-coloured frame with cream mount.

Artwork size: 26 x 33cm. Frame size: 41 x 54cm.