Dressing Table. From the Portfolio “Vienna Fashion 1914/5”, Page XII [Selection from two Portfolios], 1914

In 1911, the Wiener Werkstätte established its own fashion department. The impetus behind this was the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk, which was supposed to encompass all areas of life. Aside from other artists, the architect, designer and graphic artist Dagobert Peche (1887–1923) also contributed a number of designs for the art-print portfolio collection Vienna Fashion 1914/15, comprised of a total of 12 portfolios. The first one, from which this print is taken, had a print run of 100, while of all the others only 50 copies were printed. These small numbers illustrate that these portfolios were made less for collectors than for interested customers as presentation images in the sales outlets and studios of the Wiener Werkstätte. Peche chose the technique of linocut for this sheet, in which he placed a polygonal cartouche as a frame. Put in position on a piece of lawn is the real protagonist, an elegant lady. She is wearing a tube skirt decorated with floral motifs and a shirt patterned with zigzag ribbons. Fashionwise, the Wiener Werkstätte consistently followed its own ideas rather than trends from Paris.

MR, 2023