A new display at The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds, explores the ingenious process of silk production, weaving and trade through historic paintings, textiles, books – and the silkworm’s cocoon, where the magic begins.
The temporary display, From Cocoon to Loom: Picturing the Chinese Silk Trade, runs until 24 August. At its heart, a suite of watercolours from the Clemens N. Nathan Collection depicts the traditional process of making silk in China, from rearing silkworms to fabricating the final garments.
The paintings were created specifically for the export market in China during the late 18th and 19th centuries, to supply a demand for souvenirs among Western merchants and visitors. As well as silk production, daily life in China was a popular subject in the paintings, and in the workshops where they were produced, too, natural materials were employed with inventiveness and refinement. Pith paper, made from the spongy tissue of the ‘rice paper plant’, native to East Asia, was prized for its silk-like translucent surface and the vibrant effect produced by its absorption of paint. The paintings from the Nathan Collection are fascinating both for this distinctive technique and as records of life and work in the late Qing dynasty.
As part of their research for the display, MA Art Gallery & Museum Studies placement students Ellie Torpey, Mingxuan Xiang, and Joey Wenyu Zhu identified southern Chinese architecture in the watercolours and were able to narrow the location of the scenes to the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions.
The Clemens N. Nathan Collection comprises over 50 watercolours, oil paintings and engravings from the 18th and 19th centuries. Built up in the 1950s by Kurt A. Nathan, and continued by his son Clemens, it was donated to the University of Leeds by the Nathan family in 2016. Escaping Nazi persecution in the mid-1930s, Kurt and his family moved to the UK and founded Cunart in London. The company’s name is a compound of ‘Cu’ for Kurt, ‘n’ for Nathan and ‘art’ for artificial silk. Clemens joined Kurt in the business, taking over as managing director after his father’s death and building Cunart into one of the largest textile agencies in the country. Their Collection testifies to the fascination of both men with the history of textile manufacturing, the social history of its workforce – including labour rights – and the representation of all of this in visual art.
Alongside two series of Chinese watercolours, other highlights include engravings of the Weavers’ Uprising in Silesia by Käthe Kollwitz, and a complete set of Hogarth’s ‘Industry and Idleness’ etchings.
On behalf of the Nathan family, Clemens’ son Richard comments: “We are delighted that our father and grandfather’s collection of textile prints and watercolours has found a home at the University of Leeds. It was there that our father carried out research into international trade and delivered a seminar on management in the textile industry.
Clemens would have been especially pleased that students studying at the university have been involved in researching and creating the current display, which includes the Chinese prints from the Nathan Collection.”
Alongside the artworks are Qing Dynasty silk textiles collected in the 1930s by Professor Aldred Barker, a previous head of the Department of Textile Industries. Publications, specimens and ‘education’ collections demonstrate the Western curiosity in this luxurious fibre, and examples of the cocoons themselves can be examined and handled.
From Cocoon to Loom: Picturing the Chinese Silk Trade runs at The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, Parkinson Building, University of Leeds, until 24 August 2024. Admission is free, with no booking necessary, and the Gallery is open from 10am – 5pm, Tuesday – Saturday.
For more information, visit the University of Leeds Libraries Galleries website.
Main image: Fishermen going out to sea. 20th Century woven silk picture. Du Jinsheng Silk. Courtesy of the University of Leeds International Textile Collection.
