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Jun 3, 2021

Oct 17, 2007

Jul 17, 2017

Four Seasons

designed c. 1535, woven mid- to late 1600s

Part of a set. See all set records

manufacturer

possibly by Gobelins Manufactory

(France, Paris, est. 1662)

France

Wool, silk, and gold filé; tapestry weave

Average: 256.5 x 264.2 cm (101 x 104 in.)

Gift of Francis Ginn, Marian Ginn Jones, Barbara Ginn Griesinger, and Alexander Ginn in memory of Frank Hadley Ginn and Cornelia Root Ginn 1952.544

Location

234 Textile Gallery

Exhibition

Cycles of Life: The Four Seasons Tapestries

Did you know?

At the time of the Four Seasons's production, weavers at the Gobelins Manufactory in Paris were paid on a wage-scale based on the difficulty of the weaving; those who wove heads and flesh tones were paid the most.

Description

Each of these tapestries depict rustic activities appropriate to the season: fishing and gardening for spring, harvesting of grain in summer, wine making for autumn, and ice skating for winter. As tapestries fell out of vogue in the 1700s and 1800s many were burned so their metal threads could be harvested to mint new coins. Before coming to the Cleveland Museum of Art, these tapestries hung in the family home of Frank H. Ginn and Cornelia Root Ginn in Gates Mills, Ohio. Their children donated the tapestries to the museum in 1952.

Artist biography

Gobelins Manufactory

For more information: http://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000032919

Provenance

Balloch Castle, Scotland.

January 27-Febuary 3, 1923

Henry Symons Sale: Anderson Galleries, New York, January 27-Febuary 3, 1923

1923-1952

Frank Hadley Ginn (1868-1938) and Cornelia Winifred Root Ginn (1877-1937), Cleveland, OH

1952-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Warwick House, Ltd, and Lucas. The Balloch Castle Seasons of Lucas; Being Four Gobelin Tapestries Rich with Gold, 8 Feet 2 Inches High, with Combined Width of 41 Feet 7 Inches, from Balloch Castle, Near Glasgow, Where They Hung for Nearly Two Centuries; a Companion Set to the Famous Months of Lucas, and by the Same Designer. Baltimore: N.T.A. Munder & Co., printers, 1918. archive.org

Hunter, George Leland. "The Loan Exhibition of Tapestries." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 5, no. 8/9 (October-November 1918): 63-87 www.jstor.org

Hunter, George Leland. Loan Exhibition of Tapestries. Assembled, Arranged and Catalogued by George Leland Hunter. Cleveland Museum of Art. October 5th December 1st 1918. archive.org

Hunter, George Leland. “The Cleveland Tapestry Exhibition” in The Art World & Arts & Decoration (November 1918) 25-28. books.google.com

Hunter, George Leland. "The Cleveland Tapestry Exhibition." The American Magazine of Art 10, no. 4 (1919): 129-37. www.jstor.org

Anderson Galleries, Inc. The Henry Symons Collections. New York: Anderson Galleries, 1923. nos. 1166-69

Freund, Karl. "Four Gobelin Tapestries," International Studio. (December 1924), 234-238.

Crick-Kuntziger, Marthe, “L’énigme des ‘Mois de Lucas,’” Actes du XIIe Congrès international d’Histoire de l’Art. Volume 2. Brussels, 1930. 497-505.

Ward, Evelyn Svec. "Four Seasons Tapestries from Gobelins." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 40, no. 6 (1953): 113-19. 113-119 www.jstor.org

Standen, Edith A. "Drawings for the "Months of Lucas" Tapestry Series." Master Drawings 9, no. 1 (1971): 3-80. www.jstor.org

Standen, Edith Appleton. "Tapestries in the Collection of the Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute," Carnegie Magazine. (December 1981), 3-19. 2-7

Standen, Edith Appleton. European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Museum, 1985. 322, 330

Detroit Institute of Arts, Alan Phipps Darr, Tracey Albainy, and Melanie Holcomb. Woven Splendor: Five Centuries of European Tapestry in the Detroit Institute of Arts. [Detroit]: The Institute, 1996. 52-54

Standen, Edith Appleton and Janet Arnold. "The Comte de Toulouse's 'Months of Lucas' Gobelins Tapestries: Sixteenth-Century Designs with Eighteenth-Century Additions," Metropolitan Museum Journal. (1996), 59-79. www.jstor.org

Langeois, David, Daniel Alcouffe, Sandrine Riahi, and Musée Du Louvre. Quelques Chefs-D'oeuvre De La Collection Djahanguir Riahi : Ameublement Français Du Xviiie Siècle. Milano: Franco Maria Ricci, 1999. 66-8

Mironneau, Paul. Musée national du Château de Pau. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2003.

Cleveland Foundation. “Curating the Fine Art of Giving with the Frank Hadley Ginn & Cornelia Root Ginn Charitable Trust,”in Gift of Giving news for donors and friends of the Cleveland Foundation. Spring 2018. 4-5.

Exhibition history

Tapestries by French, Italy, English, and American Designers, from Various Lenders, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 5, 1918-December 1, 1918). [1952.544.1 and 1952.544.4 only]

Cycles of Life: The Four Seasons Tapestries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 13, 2022-February 19, 2023).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Four Seasons|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1952.544|author=Gobelins Manufactory|year=designed c. 1535, woven mid- to late 1600s|access-date=22 March 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Four Seasons

Four Seasons

possibly by Gobelins Manufactory

Location

Exhibition

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Description

Gobelins Manufactory

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