THE EILEEN GRAY BLACKBOARD RUG FOR ECART by Eileen... Lot n° 77

THE EILEEN GRAY BLACKBOARD RUG FOR ECART, 250cm x 230cm. While studying at the Slade School of Art, London, Eileen Gray was introduced to Oriental Lacquer Technique on her visits to the V&A Museum. She spent a number of years mastering the technique that she would go on to use in her furniture designs. But in 1908 on a trip to the foothills of the Atlas Mountains with her friend Evelyn Wyld, Gray learned how to dye and weave wool yarn which along with the lacquer became her main medium of expression. In 1910, she opened a weaving workshop with Wyld at 17-19 rue Visconti and began designing rug patterns. Each design was drawn and painted in gouache before taking on the form of the rug and as she became more known as a designer than an artist, Gray used the medium for her research on abstraction.