.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
cf. Exhibition catalogue, British Carpets and Designs: The Modernist Rug 1928-1938, Brighton, Royal Pavilion, Art Gallery and Museums, Brighton 1975 for other carpets by McKnight Kauffer.
cf. The Architectural Review, May 1930, p. 290 for an illustration of a carpet of this design.
cf. M. Eidelberg (ed.), exhibition catalogue, Design 1935-1965: what modern was, Le Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Montréal, New York 1991, pp. 94-95 for an illustration of a carpet of an almost identical design.
Edward McKnight Kauffer was born and raised in the United States, settling in England in 1914 where he became a commercial artist, working for the Underground Railway Co., Shell-Mex, BP and the Great Western Railway amongst others. McKnight Kauffer designed his first carpets in 1928, which were woven by the Wilton Royal Carpet Company in Wilton, England. McKnight Kauffer later married carpet designer Marion Dorn, who had inspired him to work on carpet design. With his poetic and surrealist-inspired illustrations McKnight Kauffer established himself as one of the most important artists of the modern movement in England. His biomorphic design for this carpet, with its collage-like combination of sinuous curves and angular fields rates as one of his most important carpet works.
cf. The Architectural Review, May 1930, p. 290 for an illustration of a carpet of this design.
cf. M. Eidelberg (ed.), exhibition catalogue, Design 1935-1965: what modern was, Le Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Montréal, New York 1991, pp. 94-95 for an illustration of a carpet of an almost identical design.
Edward McKnight Kauffer was born and raised in the United States, settling in England in 1914 where he became a commercial artist, working for the Underground Railway Co., Shell-Mex, BP and the Great Western Railway amongst others. McKnight Kauffer designed his first carpets in 1928, which were woven by the Wilton Royal Carpet Company in Wilton, England. McKnight Kauffer later married carpet designer Marion Dorn, who had inspired him to work on carpet design. With his poetic and surrealist-inspired illustrations McKnight Kauffer established himself as one of the most important artists of the modern movement in England. His biomorphic design for this carpet, with its collage-like combination of sinuous curves and angular fields rates as one of his most important carpet works.