eQuilter Blog

One of the great joys of travel for a creative person, is to visit art museums and see works by the masters.

One of the most beloved artists is Van Gogh, who often chose a still life for a subject. His Iris flowers in the sun-drenched colors of the Arles countryside, are some of his most famous works.

In the last few months I was able to visit some Van Gogh Iris paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and last month I visited several art museums in Vienna, Austria…including the Kunst Historisches Museum.

In the Kunst Historisches I was delighted to be allowed to take no-flash photos, and here is a closeup of a still life painting by Ferdinand Georg Waldmuller. The grapes are so juicy that you want to reach out to pick one! Waldmuller’s style is obviously quite different from Van Gogh, but they both had a deep appreciation for the power of complementary colors in their still life paintings.

Van Gogh’s Iris painting was influenced by Japanese woodblock prints, with strong outlines, sharp angles, and flat saturated colors.

A few years ago I visited Arles in Provence France, and peeked in at the Saint-Remy asylum where he painted his Irises. It was a bittersweet moment to stand in the courtyard and see the late afternoon sun fall at a sharp angle in the corner of the garden, just as Van Gogh would have seen that bright golden light and those dark purple shadows.

Two weeks ago when I was in Vienna, I went to Budapest for a day. During some free time, I walked through the central market building and took photos of all the great arts and crafts.

One of the things I love to photograph when traveling is rows and rows of souvenirs. Fortunately in Hungary one popular type of souvenir is DOLLS. These were so pretty I just had to share…because they were dressed up in embroidered dresses that reminded me of some of my favorite florals at eQuilter.

There is a textile design trend that mixes up a big batch of influences: Bohemian, Gypsy, Eastern European, Russian, Indian, Paisley, Scandinavian and even Turkish. They overlap in so many ways that often it is difficult to tease out individual influences.

You may recall that a few years ago I traveled to Russia, and during my time in Moscow I was offered a private tour through the Textile History Museum at the Textile Design University. As we traveled through each room of the museum, I tried to absorb the hundreds and ultimately thousands of design influences that were collected there from across Russia and the parts of the former Soviet Union. I was allowed to take photos of most rooms, but only if I promised not to share the photos.

So I can share the memory of that experience, and I can tell you that it sparked a deeper interest in these Bohemian-Russian-Eastern European textile designs that are so distinctive. By the way Bohemian is not a retro design trend from the Seventies. It refers to Bohemia!…which is now the Czech Republic. (roughly speaking)

My next design curiosity and inspiration I think will be Polish ceramics. I’ve seen some here in Boulder, then saw some more in Santa Fe in March (!), and had my nose pressed up against a window in Hungary, admiring the detailed painted florals on plates, cups and cream pitchers.

Last week while I was in Vienna, I took a one day trip to Budapest because I just had to have another look at the amazing Matthias Church.

The reason I am so madly in love with this church is because the interior is completely covered with hundreds of different painted repeating patterns…from the frescoes on the walls to the spiraling designs on the stone pillars.

These painted frescoes and designs were created by the two most important historical painters of the era, Bertalan Székely and Károly Lotz. They also created the beautiful stained glass windows in the church.

Following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1867, Matthias Church was the scene of a grand coronation ceremony when Franz Joseph and his wife Elizabeth (also known as Empress Sisi) were crowned, and thus the Austro-Hungarian Empire was established.

On this trip I also finally made it to the Sisi Museum, which is part of the Hofburg Castle Museum complex in Vienna. It is all about Sisi who was a very popular figure, with a life full of tragedy, who was eventually assassinated.

I have a special interest in Sisi because I had a client in New York who was Sisi’ s descendant. She told me stories about her great-grandmother and years later I finally “met” Sisi when I saw her famous Winterhalter portrait.

Sisi lived in a time of great opulence, but also a time of tremendous art and design. She wore gowns that had yards and yards of exquisite fabric. She ate off handpainted plates created by imperial artisans, and decorated her knee-length hair with starry ornaments. She was a celebrity in her own time, surrounded by the rich expression of ornamental arts that flourished during her lifetime.