Anna Maria Garthwaite | |
|---|---|
| Born | probably(1688-03-14)14 March 1688 Harston, Leicestershire, England |
| Died | October 1763(1763-10-00) (aged 75) |
| Nationality | English |
| Known for | Textile design |
Anna Maria Garthwaite (b.Harston, Leicestershire, c. 14 March 1688[2] – October 1763) was an Englishtextile designer known for creating vivid floral designs for silkfabrics hand-woven inSpitalfields, London, in the mid-18th century. Garthwaite was acknowledged as one of the premiere English designers of her day. Many of her original designs inwatercolours have survived, and silks based on these designs have been identified in portraiture and incostume collections in England and abroad.[1][3]
Anna Maria Garthwaite was the daughter of the Reverend Ephraim Garthwaite (1647–1719) ofGrantham, Lincolnshire, who was rector of nearby Harston, Leicestershire, at the time of her birth,[4] and his wife Rejoyce Hausted.[5] Anna Maria left Grantham to live inYork with her twice-widowed sister Mary from 1726 to 1728.[6] They relocated to a house in Princes Street (now Princelet Street)[7] in the silk-weaving district ofSpitalfields east of theCity of London in 1728, and Anna Maria created over 1000 designs for woven silks there over the next three decades.[6] Some 874 of her original designs in watercolour from the 1720s through 1756 have survived and are now in the collection of theVictoria and Albert Museum.[8] Many of these designs are dated and annotated with weaving instructions and the names of the weavers to whom they were sold. Awaistcoat woven to one of Garthwaite's designs in the collection of the Costume Institute of theMetropolitan Museum of Art.
Garthwaite's work is closely associated with the mid-18th century fashion for flowered woven silks in theRoccoco style, with its new emphasis onasymmetrical structures and sinuousC- andS-curves. She adapted thepoints rentrés technique developed by the French silk designer Jean Revel in the 1730s for representing near-three-dimensional floral patterns through careful shading,[9] and her designs included large-scaledamasks as well as floralbrocades. From 1742–43, Garthwaite's work—and English silk design in general—diverged from French styles, favouring clusters of smaller naturalistic flowers in bright colours scattered across a (usually) pale ground. The taste for vividly realistic florals reflects the advances inbotanical illustration inBritain at this time, and can be contrasted with French silks of the period which show stylised flowers and more harmonious, if unrealistic, colourations.[10][11][12]
Spitalfields silks were widely exported to Northern Europe and especially toColonial America,[10] which was prohibited from trading directly with France by Britain'sNavigation Acts.[13] The connections established in Colonial America allowed Garthwaite's silk to be spread and recognized around the globe.[14] Surviving silkskirt panels said to have been owned byMartha Dandridge prior to her marriage toGeorge Washington have been attributed to Garthwaite,[13] because the panels, which are housed in theColonial Williamsburg collection, match one of her extant watercolor designs.[15] A gown currently preserved at Colonial Williamsburg was made sometime between 1775 and 1785 with the silk lampas that Garthwaite designed in 1726-28, which was passed down in an American family for around fifty years and reused for three generations before being assembled into the wedding dress that is now in their collection.[16]
Her will dated 1758 was read 24 October 1763, at Princes Street in the parish ofChrist Church.[4] She was buried atChrist Church three days later on 27 October 1763 asAnna-Maria Garthwaite aged 75 of Princes Street.[17]
Garthwaite has been called the "pre-eminent silk designer of her period".[18] Malachy Postlethwayt (c. 1707–1767) inThe Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce of 1751 listed Garthwaite as one of three designers who had "introduced the Principles of Painting into the loom."[19]
ABlue Plaque granted byEnglish Heritage in 1998 marks the house at 2 Princelet Street, Spitalfields, E1, where Garthwaite lived and worked.[20]
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