4/17/12

Percy Grainger - towel clothes and beadwork

Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882-1961) and Ella Viola Grainger (1889-1979)
Towelling clothes outfit, c.1934)
Grainger Museum collection, University of Melbourne

Unknown photographer, New York
Percy and Ella Grainger wearing towelling clothes outfits at their home in White Plains, 1936
Silver gelatin print
Grainger Museum collection, University of Melbourne


Unknown photographer, New York
Percy Grainger wearing a toweling clothes outfit at his home in White Plains, 1936
Silver gelatin print
Grainger Museum collection, University of Melbourne

Unknown photographer, New York
Percy Grainger wearing a toweling clothes outfit at his home in White Plains, 1936
Silver gelatin print
Grainger Museum collection, University of Melbourne

Attributed to Roger Quilter’s niece (name unknown), London
Percy Grainger wearing a towelling clothes outfit at his home in Kings Road, Chelsea, 
c.1910
Silver gelatin print
Grainger Museum collection, University of Melbourne


Attributed to Karen Holten, London
Percy Grainger wearing his decorative beadwork chestpiece, late summer 1909
Silver gelatin print
Grainger Museum collection, University of Melbourne

Attributed to Karen Holten, London
Percy Grainger wearing his decorative beadwork chestpiece, late summer 1909
Silver gelatin print
Grainger Museum collection, University of Melbourne

Attributed to Karen Holten, London
Percy Grainger wearing his decorative beadwork chestpiece, late summer 1909
Silver gelatin print
Grainger Museum collection, University of Melbourne


In Grainger’s own words. Transcriptions of the text for Grainger’s display legends on the topics of towel clothes and beadwork are below:
Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882-1961)
Towel clothes made by Rose Grainger, Percy Grainger & Ella Grainger
Grainger Museum display legend, c.1955-1956
Typescript on paper glued to card backing, painted blue border
Grainger Museum collection, University of Melbourne
“The artist is not (as so many so called “inartistic” people seem to like to believe) a being supernaturally gifted with skill for some branch of art. To sing, make music, paint, draw, carve and dance is natural to all humanity, and it is only a lopsided civilisation, mad on “specialisation”, that scares the “tame cats” of humanity into abandoning their natural right to an allround manysided life. The artist-type is not quite so tame-cat-like and more easily avoids what Tennyson calls “the falsehood of extremes”. So the artist tries to keep the balance between normality and the slavish modes and crazes of the moment. In a licentious age he is a puritan; in a puritanical age he is a hedonist; in a dirty age he strives to be clean; in a drab age he is colour-seeking.
“My mother was devoted to Lafcadio Hearn’s stories of Japan and she worshipped many aspects of Japanese civilisation – for instance its cleanliness. And she and I often discussed the filthiness of European clothes: men’s coats in which the sweat of years is allowed to gather,our shoes that bring the dirt of the streets into our homes. And around 1910(after we had both been fired by the beauty of Maori and South Sea island clothes and fabrics seen in museums in New Zealand and Australia)my mother mooted the idea of clothes made of Turkish towels – cool in summer, warm in the winter, and washable at all times. I leaped at the idea, seeing therein a chance to return to something comparable with the garish brilliance of the “skyblue and scarlet” garments of our Saxon and Scandinavian forefathers. I resented very much that the darkness and dullness of more southerly European fashions (after the Norman Conquest) had ousted the bright colourfulness natural to the north of Europe (think of the clothes made of bird’s feathers described in Lady Gregory’s translations of old Irish Tales). The result of my mother’s and my teamwork is the field of towel-clothing is seen in Towel Clothes 1.
“Between 1910 and 1914 I wore these clothes while giving many of my lessons in London and continually during my composing holidays in Denmark. In 1932 or 1933 my wife and I took up again this idea of clothing made of towelling and when in Australia in 1934 and 1935 we were amazed by the beauty of the bath towels on sale in Australia – some imported from England, Chekoslovakia and America, but most of them (and among them the most beautiful ones) manufactured in Australia. Here was a chance to show what could be done with the 
beauty born of machinery – a beauty as rich and subtle, in its own way, as anything made by hand or loom. The problem was to use the towels with as little cutting and sewing as possible, and in this skill my wife shone.”
Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882-1961)
Beadwork & other native curios
Draft text for a Grainger Museum display legend, c.1938
Manuscript on paper
Grainger Museum collection, University of Melbourne
“In Jan.? 1909 (while staying at Warwick House, Christchurch) Rose Grainger & P.G. went (separately) to the Christchurch museum & both (separately) fell wildly in love with the African & other beadwork displayed there. P.G. made drawings while in the museum & soon started copying native beadwork himself (the big necklace with free hanging beard is one of their results & so is the blue & white belt—copied from an Island belt shown by a German on board the German Lloyd Steamer 1st ½ of 1909), buying the beads in (Sydney?) & stringing them on unwound brown fishing line. On getting to Sydney after N. Zealand (Feb or March 1909) P.G. bought a lot of beadwork & other native curios (& photos of natives) at Tost & Rohu’s opposite G.P.O. Sydney (Martin Place). The S’African ones had been brought to Australia by Australian Boer War soldiers. After Sydney P.G. bought the Island wristbands (beads, blue & white) in Queensland—all (I think) from a Swedish greengrocer who had taken beadwork from Kanaka sugarcane-field-workers in payment for vegetables.
“On returning to London both Rose & P.G. did much beadwork—among others a small tablemat (coral color & white?) made by R.G. & given to Mrs Nina Grieg. The American Indian beadwork was bought by Rose G. and P.G. while living at 680 Madison Ave, (The Southern), New York City, around 1915–1917. Some American Indian beadwork was maybe added later.
“A few other gifts were added by friends. Ella Grainger bought some nice shell money things to America when marrying P.G. (1928), when she also brought the big Solomon Island mask.
“The cabinet stood in the street-level hallway at 31a Kings Rd, Chelsea, London (not far from the wooden settee). After being stored in London during the war it came to White Plains, N.Y. (7 Cromwell Place), where it stood in hallway, facing front door.”
The Grainger Museum www.grainger.unimelb.edu.au