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| Study of Squash or Pumpkin Plants, early 20th century. Photo: Matt Flynn, Smithsonian Institution. |
This month we visited the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York City to view a small but impressive exhibit highlighting the work of designer Sophia Crownfield, a professional American artist who developed precise nature studies into prints for textiles and wallpapers. The exhibit is on view through July 31, 2022.
From the wall text:
From the 1890s to the 1920s, Sophia Crownfield (American, 1862-1929) designed prints for some of the most prominent silk and wallpaper manufacturers in the United States. Crownfield's interest in design was not a casual one; she was a middle-class working woman who supported herself and her youngest sister Eva through her design career. Her story shows the hard reality that confronted American designers in a largely freelance system that offered little professional support or recognition. To record and protect their unique designs, Crownfield and the many others who worked for some of the largest textile firms turned to the United States patent system.
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| Patent submission. |
Wall text continues:
Crownfield first worked in Baltimore as a china decorator, and in 1889, she moved to New York City where she established herself as a professional freelance designer. Her drawings of flowers range from delicate graphite sketches to vivid color studies, revealing her obvious ease with different types of specimens. She had a surehanded approach that started with her sketching from stems of live flowers. Through progressive stages of rework, she developed designs for patterns and polished drawings for specific uses. Examples of Cheney Brothers' printed silks, show alongside these richly detailed drawings, reveal how Crownfield's process transformed floral stems into the fashionable patterns of the period.
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| Drawing, Study of Irises, on trace paper, early 20th-century. |
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| Drawing, Study of Irises, gray paper, early 20th-century |
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| Cheney Brother silk print, designed by S. Crownfield. |
Wall text, conclusion:
Generation of female designers, both before and after Crownfield, experienced the same invisibility; the notable exceptions were those that were wealthy or well connected. Recognizing how easily her sister's contributions to American design could be lost, Crownfield's younger sister, the author Gertrude Crownfield, took great care to place her work in institutions such as Cooper Hewitt to preserve her legacy.
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| Crownfield in her studio, c. 1900, photo courtesy Crownfield family. |
Crownfield's design career coincided with the heyday of the Cheney Brothers manufacturing of silk fabrics. You can read a contemporary promotional history of the company here: https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/hearth4614873
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| Drawing, floral study (detail) early 20th-century |
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| Silk fabric designed by Crownfield, produced by Cheney Brothers. |
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| Silk fabric designed by Crownfield, produced by Cheney Brothers. |
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| Silk fabric designed by Crownfield, produced by Cheney Brothers (glare from lighting). |
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| Design for cushion cover, early 20th-century. |
