Description

When this luxurious French silk was hung as a curtain in a New York City penthouse apartment overlooking Greenwich Village in the late 1920s, it was strikingly avant garde. The linear drawing of exotic tropical vegetation is characteristic of the French Art Deco movement—highly creative Art Moderne decorative work that relied upon the luxury trades for its production for some thirty years (about 1910 to 1940). This silk was designed about 1927 by the prominent Art Deco designer, Paul Rodier, who was renowned for his technical knowledge of textiles, which he used to achieve rich textures. In this reversible fabric, the nobly tangerine-copper silk pattern contrasts with the shimmering golden silk ground, creating a lively, opulent effect.