Fortuny

By Anne-Marie Descholdt and Doretta Davanzo Poli

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In this splendidly illustrated publication about this famous fabric and clothing artist, readers are acquainted with Fortuny's time-consuming printing techniques for applying gold and silver onto velvet and transparent silk.

Review

This new publication edited by the French journalist Anne-Marie Descholdt, in co-operation with the curator of the Venice Museum of Applied Art, Doretta Davanzo Poli, is about the great fabric magician, Mariano Fortuny (1871-1949). It was originally published in French during 2000 by Editions du Regard, Paris. The authors' contributions are accompanied by needle-sharp photographs. Most of the textiles shown were taken from the extensive collection owned by Liselotte Höhs.
The book will not only acquaint readers with Fortuny as a famous fabric and clothing artist, but also provides an insight into his work as a costume designer, set-designer, light technician, photographer, painter, interior decorator and engineer, activities that he also engaged in. Like Renaissance artists, he did not wish to become tied down to one particular profession. Above all, he wished to bring the past to life again. Together with his wife, Henriette Negrin, an expert for natural dyes, he invented countless dyeing processes, all of them derived from old handweavers' expertise. In his Venice palazzo he employed many printers; more than fifty patents bear his name, like the permanently pleated silks that made him world-famous. In addition to his workshop in the city of lagoons, the Società Anonima Fortuny, a silk printing company, was founded on Giudecca island in 1919. After his fabrics and clothes had become well-known at the Paris World Exposition, he established a shop in that city as early as 1911. A New York couture shop where his creations sold for astronomical prices followed in 1929. A less well-known enterprise is his Berlin company, AEG Beleuchtungssystem Fortuny GmbH, which specialised in lighting arrangements and created indirect lighting effects for the stage.
The two authors have managed to bring Fortuny to life, with all his creative obsession, major successes as well as financial disasters. The last company to bear his name, "Tessuti Artistici Fortuny", was opened by his wife Henriette in 1951, two years after his death, and managed by her until her own death in 1965. In 1994 the company was re-opened by Elsie Lee, with a staff of thirty.
Curator Doretta Davanzo Poli gives a highly accurate and comprehensive description of Fortuny's time-consuming printing techniques using gold and silver on velvet or reproduced velvet; lace designs on transparent silk; etching techniques; Japanese printing techniques and other subtleties used by the artist. This publication for textile and clothing designers thus also provides some practical guidance.

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