Chinese Figures
Medium
printed, dyed & painted textiles
Classification
printed, dyed & painted textiles
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Harold M. Bailey
Accession Number
1960-79-17
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
"Chinese Figures" is a captivating example of 18th-century textiles created by Bromley Hall (2–1763), dated to 1765 and housed in the Smithsonian American Art's collection. This piece, gifted by Harold M. Bailey, exemplifies printed, dyed, and painted—a labor-intensive medium blending block-printing, resist-dyeing, and hand-painting techniques Though Hall passed away two years prior, such works were often completed in workshops by apprentices or collaborators, reflecting the collaborative nature of textile production in Georgian England. The title hints at chinoiserie, the fashionable Europea...