Crewel Embroidered Bed Curtain c. 1937

This Crewel Embroidered Bed Curtain was made by Robert T. Gills, who lived between 1855 and 1995. The artwork depicts a floral design in blue, red and green on a neutral background. I really feel for this maker, who laboured stitch by stitch, probably over many months, to create this beautiful curtain. It would have been a really slow process. The stitches themselves are small and tight; the surface has a beautiful, dense, tactile quality. The colors in the flowers are delicate, with subtle variations in tone that give them a real sense of depth. Notice how the artist has used different colors to create the illusion of light and shadow, like the way the blue flower at the center almost seems to glow. It reminds me a little of Victorian samplers, or even the Bayeux Tapestry - artworks created through the slow, careful accumulation of labor. There is a sense that the maker is building up the image one stitch at a time, and it's this incremental, almost meditative process, which gives it such a distinctive feel. I think Gills was in dialogue with a long history of making, and he’s put his own stamp on it.