Howzat? (2025/2026) [1]Annual ReviewMarie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below the annual reviews that span the life of this blogspot.
It's Been An Exciting Year (2010/2011)
Another Cheer - Another Year (2011/2012)
Where Did The Year Go? (2012/2013)
The Year of the Horse (2013/2014)
Cold and Windy - But on the Dawn of Renewal (2014/2015)
A Time To Reflect - A Time To Select (2015/2016)
A Time to Remember (2016/2017)
To Be or Not to Be (2017/2018)
The Night Too Quickly Passes (2018/2019)
The Year of Living Dangerously (2019/2020)
Attempt The Impossible Since Failure Will Still Be Your Success (2020/2021)
A Year of Climate Extremes (2021/2022)
I Love A Sunburnt Country (2022/2023)
Australian Rules (2023/2024)
Year of the Snake (2024/2025)
Howzat? (2025/2026)

How's That?
The History of Australian cricket began over 210 years ago. The first recorded cricket match in Australia took place in Sydney in December 1803 and a report in the Sydney Gazette on 8 January 1804 suggested that cricket was already well established in the infant colony. By 1826, clubs including the Currency Cricket Club, the Military Cricket Club and the Australian Cricket Club had been formed. Hyde Park, and the Racecourse were the venue for these organised matches. The formation of clubs in Van Diemen's Land (later named Tasmania) was not far behind with clubs formed in Hobart in 1832 and Launceston in 1841. In Western Australia a match was arranged in 1835 between the "builders" (probably architects and engineers) of the new Government House and a team of labourers and "mechanics" (an archaic term for trades people). In what would later become Victoria (Australia), in 1838, the Melbourne Cricket Club was formed – it would become arguably Australia's most exclusive and influential cricket club. In 1839, a club was formed in South Australia.

Intercolonial cricket in Australia started with a visit by cricketers from Victoria to Tasmania in February 1851. The match was played in Launceston on 11–12 February with Tasmania winning by three wickets. Another three matches between the two teams were played before 1854 but in time the crossing of Bass Strait became less attractive to the Victorians and the focus turned to the neighbouring colony of New South Wales. These matches attracted large crowds, including a crowd of 15,000 at a match in Sydney in January 1853. Boards of control were formed in the various colonies: New South Wales in 1857, Victoria in 1864 and South Australia in 1871.

In May to October 1868, a cricket team composed of Aboriginal Australians toured England, becoming the first organised group of Australian sportspeople to travel overseas. It would be another ten years before an Australian cricket team classed as representative of Australia toured Britain.

The concept of an Aboriginal cricket team can be traced to pastoral stations in the Western District of Victoria, where, in the mid-1860s, the European owners introduced Aboriginal station hands to the sport. An Aboriginal XI was created with the assistance of Tom Wills, the captain of the Victorian cricket team and founder of Australian rules football, who acted as the side's captain-coach in the lead-up to and during an 1866–67 tour of Victoria and New South Wales.

Aboriginal cricket team at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1867.

In cricket, an appeal, locally pronounced as a 'Howzat,' but in reality its meaning is, 'How is that?', is the act of a player (or players) on the fielding team asking an umpire for a decision regarding whether a batter is out or not. According to Law 31 of the Laws of Cricket, an umpire will not rule a batter out unless the fielding side appeals for a decision. An appeal covers all forms of dismissal, regardless of what the fielding team believes they are appealing for. On occasions when a batter has otherwise technically been out, the fielding team has not realised, so did not appeal, and so the umpire will not declare the batter to be out. An appeal may be made at any point before the bowler starts their run-up for delivery of the next ball.

Howzat? (2025/2026)
The number of categories on this blogspot keeps growing. They are as follows: (i) ArtCloth, Art Quilts, Textile Art; (ii) Art Essays; (iii) Art Exhibitions/Installations/Talks; (iv) Artist's and Designer's Profiles; (v) Art Resources; (vi) Art Reviews; (vii) Book Reviews/Interviews; (viii) Craft and Quilt Fairs; (ix) Fabric Lengths; (x) Glossaries; (xi) Guest Artists/Authors/Creatives/Guest Editors; (xii) Opinion Pieces; (xiii) Prints on Paper; (xiv) Resource Reviews; (xv) Technical Articles; (xvi) Wearable Art; (xvii) Workshops and Master Classes (i.e., my students outputs).
Note: Not all of these categories are present in any given year. For example, this season there were no Book Reviews/Interviews, or for that matter, Guest Artists/Author/Creatives, Guest Editors, Fabric Lengths, or Opinion Pieces. Futhermore, there were no new Glossaries, although several of the Glossaries were substantially increased in content (e.g., click on the following link - Glossary of Art, Artists, Art Motifs and Art Movements to access all the glossaries).

I do realize that judging a post by a single criterion, namely, the most number of views, is not necessarily the smartest approach, since the length of stay of a viewer on that paticular post might negate the former statistic. How often have you heard yourself say - 'Oops I really didn't mean to google this site when I googled "snake" and it landed on not the animal, but on a man's boxer shorts.' Within second, I promise I ditched the site! Nevertheless, this one statistic makes it easier for me to make a judgement about which posts were popular, and so it will be used as the final arbitrator, except in the case when two posts differ by less than two viewers in total. Then I will decree that both are joint winners!
Note: Within each category we are only talking about differences in number of page views, rather than the absolute number of page views.

ArtCloth, Art Quilts and Textile Art
There were twelve posts in this category in the 2025/2026 season, which is equal in number to the Art Resource posts. The two that got the largest number of page views in this category were only two weeks apart, namely: Time Waits for No Man and Art Quilts of Karin Franzen, with the former having 77 more page views and so is the winner in this category.

Title: Time Waits for No Man (Full View).
Artist: Marie-Therese Wisniowski.
Techniques and Media: Hand painted, silk screened, mono printed, stamped and collaged employing transparent, opaque, and metallic pigments on cotton.
Size: 30 cm high x 19.5 cm wide.
Year of Creation: 2025.
Edition: 1/1.

Art Essays
There were six posts in this category in the 2025/2026 season, with the following two having the most page views, namely, Katazome (Stencil Dyeing) - Part III and Optical Illusions - Part II, with the former being ahead by only four page views.

Man on the Moon.
This image of Buzz Aldrin's helmet was made out of a collage of space images.

Art Exhibitions/Installations/Talks
There were no posts in this category in 2025/2026 season.

Artist/Designer Profiles
There were four posts in this category in 2025/2026 season, with the two most popular in terms of page views being: Maurits C. Escher (1898-1972) and Abby Thomas, with the former having two hundred and sixty-eight more page views and so is the winner in this category.

Escher with wife Jetta Umiker (her maiden name).

Art Resources
The Art Resources posts are generally the first post in any given month and so they tend to numerically dominate the number of page views of the published posts in any given year. Also the posts in this category that were published early in the season have a longer time duration on the blogspot and so feature more prominently in terms of the page views statistics compared to more recently published posts. Hence it is not surprising that the two most viewed posts in this category were one month apart and moreover, featured early in the publishing cycle of the accounting period. The two most viewed posts in this category in 2025/2026 were: White Pigments - Part I and White Pigments - Part II, with the former having 183 more page views.

Guest Editors
There was only one Guest Editor in the 2025/2026 season and that was Robyn Werkhoven, who penned "The Journey of Studio La Primitive Arts Zine".

Prints on Paper
There were four Prints on Paper posts in 2025/2026 season, with the two most viewed being four months apart and they were: Intaglio Prints Created Using Solarplates [1] - Part VI and Margaret Preston and Printmaking, with the former having 147 more page views.

Creator: Yvonne Boag.
Title: Nowhere Road (1998).
Print: Double exposure.
Size: 12 x 16.75 in (30.5 x 42.5 cm).
Comment: Yvonne Boag created two drawings on semi-matte drafting film with lithographic crayons and graphite pencils. The two films were partially overlaid and taped together, then exposed in a vacuum frame using the double exposure technique. Inked a la poupée, this print shows the fine marks and textures that the double exposure technique can preserve.
Courtesy: Comtempory Access Gallery (Australia).

Wearable Art
There were six posts in this category in the 2025/2026 season, with the two most viewed posts being Felt Objects - Part II and Traditional Batik Clothing, with the latter having 56 more page views and so is the winner in this category.

A central Javanese bridal couple, 1975. Men wear the dodot over tight trousers made of cinde cloth. The higher the status or class, the more these trousers are visible. The dodot trails a little at the back, falling over the dagger sheath and is lifted by several train carriers. The dagger (kris) is held in a wide belt called pangsit. The head is covered by a stiff Persian cap called kuluk. The upper trunk is uncovered. Women wear the dodot over the kain panjang, the upper trunk slightly bound with a breastcloth. The draping is carried out by selected servants and follows strictly in accordance with a prescribed ritual.

Workshops and Master Classes (i.e., my students outputs)
Due to the number of extracurricular activities (e.g., penning, designing and creating a soon to be published printmakers book) there were no workshops and masterclasses that I taught in 2025/2026 season.

Conclusion
I hope you have enjoyed this review of my yearly posts between August of 2025 to August of 2026 of the "Howzat" review.

Reference:
[1] https://vinpearl.com/en/vietnamese-new-year-animals-12-signs-their-symbolism.

Stamped, Stencilled and Dyed Clothing from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Mali [1]ArtClothMarie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below other posts in this series:
Diversity of African Textiles
African Textiles: West Africa
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part I
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part II
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part III
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part IV
Djerma Weaving of Niger and Burkina-Faso
Woolen Stripweaves of the Niger Bend
Nigerian Horizontal - Loom Weaving
Yoruba Lace Weave
Nigerian Women's Vertical Looms
The Supplementary Weft Cloths of Ijebu-Ode and Akwete
African Tie and Dye
Tie and Dye of the Dida, Ivory Coast
African Stitch Resist
Yoruba Stitch Resist
Yoruba: Machine-Stitched Resist Indigo-Dyed Cloth
Yoruba and Baulé Warp Ikat
Nigerian Starch-Resist (by hand)
Stencilled Starch-Resist
Wax Resist
Stamped, Stencilled and Dyed Clothing from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Mali

Stamped, Stencilled and Dyed Clothing from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Mali
Kola nut (usually Cola nitida) grows abundantly in this region, in both the wild and the cultivated state. It is traded throughout West Africa and is generally chewed as a stimulant, in the manner of the areca nut and betal leaf in India.

Kola Nuts.

Other varieties, such as Cola acuminata, Cola verticillata, and Cola anomala, are grown in other parts of West Africa, but Cola nitida is the most important one. It was exported to Britain in the 1890s, in later times to America, where it formed the basis of carbonated cola drinks such as Coca-Cola.

In West Africa, Cola nitida is also used as a quick and easy coloring agent to dye clothing an orange brown. This clothing may also be decorated by stamping or stencilling with vegetable dyes. In Guinea, women stencil out simple vegetal designs on to kola-dyed men's and boy's smocks.

Dyeing with kola nut in Guinea.

Women in Guinea stencilling patterns on to kola-dyed cloth.

In the north of Sierra Leone, the dyes are different. The Limba and Yalunka stamp simple designs with vegetable dyes onto a brown-dyed cloth, a technique called huronko.

Selling huronko cloth in the market in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

The pioneering textile researchers in Venice, and Alastair Lamb observed that, in Sierra Leone, the brown dyes were obtained from mahogany, other tree roots and some bark. These dyes were then when boiled up, then left overnight and strained. Cloth was immersed in the resulting dye bath for a few hours, then left in the sun to oxidize. This process would be repeated four to fifteen times to deepen to a shade of brown. Yellow was obtained by just using mahogany bark. The stamping mixture consisted of a compost of leaves and iron-bearing river mud, while the stamps were carved out of raphia palm. One popular pattern today is 'Commando Boot Sole,' reflecting the horrendous civil war of the 1990s. In Guinea, the women break the kola nut and immerse it in water for a short period until it produces a suitable dye.

Huronko woman's wrap, printed in the Commando Boot Sole pattern, Limba people, Sierra Leone.

Stripwoven, kola-dyed cotton smock of a Bamana farmer, Mali.

Limba hunter's shirt dyed with an infusion of tree roots and printed with a leaf and mud-based dye. This type of work is known as "huronko."

Reference:
[1] J. Gillow, African Textiles, Thames & Hudson Ltd, London (2003).

Color and Light - Part II [1]Art ResourceMarie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
This is the fifty-nineth post in a new Art Resource series that specifically focuses on techniques used in creating artworks. For your convenience I have listed below all the posts in this new series:
Drawing Art
Painting Art - Part I
Painting Art - Part II
Painting Art - Part III
Painting Art - Part IV
Painting Art - Part V
Painting Art - Part VI
Home-Made Painting Art Materials
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part I
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part II
Quality in Ready-Made Artists' Supplies - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part I
Historical Notes on Art - Part II
Historical Notes on Art - Part III
Historical Notes on Art - Part IV
Historical Notes on Art - Part V
Tempera Painting
Oil Painting - Part I
Oil Painting - Part II
Oil Painting - Part III
Oil Painting - Part IV
Oil Painting - Part V
Oil Painting - Part VI
Pigments
Classification of Pigments - Part I
Classification of Pigments - Part II
Classification of Pigments - Part III
Pigments for Oil Painting
Pigments for Water Color
Pigments for Tempera Painting
Pigments for Pastel
Japanese Pigments
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part I
Pigments for Fresco Painting - Part II
Selected Fresco Palette for Permanent Frescoes
Properties of Pigments in Common Use
Blue Pigments - Part I
Blue Pigments - Part II
Blue Pigments - Part III
Green Pigments - Part I
Green Pigments - Part II
Red Pigments - Part I
Red Pigments - Part II
Yellow Pigments - Part I
Yellow Pigments - Part II
Brown and Violet Pigments
Black Pigments
White Pigments - Part I
White Pigments - Part II
White Pigments - Part III
Inert Pigments
Permanence of Pigments: New Pigments - Part I
Permanence of Pigments: New Pigments - Part II
Limited or Restricted Palettes
Testing of Pigments - Part I
Testing of Pigments - Part II
Further Refinement of Pigments
Color and Light - Part I
Color and Light - Part II

There have been another one hundred and thirteen posts in a previous Art Resource series that have focused on the following topics:
(i) Units used in dyeing and printing of fabrics;
(ii) Occupational, health & safety issues in an art studio;
(iii) Color theories and color schemes;
(iv) Optical properties of fiber materials;
(v) General properties of fiber polymers and fibers - Part I to Part V;
(vi) Protein fibers;
(vii) Natural and man-made cellulosic fibers;
(viii) Fiber blends and melt spun fibers;
(ix) Fabric construction;
(x) Techniques and woven fibers;
(xi) Basic and figured weaves;
(xii) Pile, woven and knot pile fabrics;
(xiii) Durable press and wash-and-wear finishes;
(xvi) Classification of dyes and dye blends;
(xv) The general theory of printing.

To access any of the above resources, please click on the following link - Units Used in Dyeing and Printing of Fabrics. This link will highlight all of the one hundred and thirteen posts in the previous a are eight data bases on this blogspot, namely, the Glossary of Cultural and Architectural Terms, Timelines of Fabrics, Dyes and Other Stuff, A Fashion Data Base, the Glossary of Colors, Dyes, Inks, Pigments and Resins, the Glossary of Fabrics, Fibers, Finishes, Garments and Yarns, Glossary of Art, Artists, Art Motifs and Art Movements, Glossary of Paper, Photography, Printing, Prints and Publication Terms and the Glossary of Scientific Terms. All data bases in the future will be updated from time-to-time.

If you find any post on this blog site useful, you can save it or copy and paste it into your own "Word" document for your future reference. For example, Safari allows you to save a post (e.g., click on "File", click on "Print" and release, click on "PDF" and then click on "Save As" and release - and a PDF should appear where you have stored it). Safari also allows you to mail a post to a friend (click on "File", and then point cursor to "Mail Contents On This Page" and release). Either way, this or other posts on this site may be a useful Art Resource for you.

The new Art Resource series will be the first post in each calendar month. Remember - these Art Resource posts span information that will be useful for a home hobbyist to that required by a final year University Fine-Art student and so undoubtedly, some parts of any Art Resource post may appear far too technical for your needs (skip those mind boggling parts) and in other parts, it may be too simplistic with respect to your level of knowledge (ditto the skip). The trade-off between these two extremes will mean that Art Resource posts will be hopefully useful in parts to most, but unfortunately may not be satisfying to all!

Introduction
This is the 800th published post on my blogspot. The first post that I published was "ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions. An International Exhibition." To view this post, click on the following link - ArtCloth: Engaging New Visions.

In 2010, I would not have envisaged that some sixteen years later I would still be publishing a weekly post. It has been a long journey, and I hope, a fruitful one for you as it has been for me. Many of these posts were sourced from numerous books, magazines as well based on my own artistic journey. I have always referenced my sources and so I want thank all those authors as well as the many invited editors and artists who have contributed to this journey of mine. Without them, my blog posts would not have been so varied, nor so interesting. Thanks to all the contributors!

Note: Milestones are meant to be surpassed. This is a powerful reminder that achievements are stepping stones rather than finishing lines. In both personal and professional growth, acknowledging a goal is crucial for motivation, but setting your sights on the next level of development prevents stagnation and drives continuous improvement. Thank you for being a witness to my journey of discovery in the subjects that are of interest to me, and which I have featured on this blogspot.

Color and Light - Part II [1]
Pigments vary in transparency in the direct ratio to their refractive indices, but all of them are transparent to some extent. If the proper medium is selected, laboratory tests can be made which will show that the most opaque colors, even flake white, appear transparent under certain conditions. The liquids used in such laboratory experiments are not suitable for paint medium purposes, but the effects produced clearly demonstrate that the hiding power or opacity in paint film can be lost through a change in conditions, which surround the pigment that has been used.

In an actual oil painting, this does not occur at once; but in galleries one may frequently find a picture in which, by reason of changes wrought by time, oxidation, etc., the refractive index of the oil film has changed, and a thin coat of paint originally sufficed to form an opaque film has become sufficiently transparent to allow an underpainting or drawing to show through. The effect is called pentimento.

Rembrandt | Flora, 1634.
Note: In this painting, pentimento appears since there is a notable presence or emergence of earlier images, forms, or strokes that have been changed and were painted over.

Though all opaque pigments have this property, the whites possess it to a greater degree than do the others; pentimento in old pictures usually appears where white or colors reduced with much white have been used. The fact that all dried films of oil paint tend to become more transparent with age is well established.

It will be seen from the foregoing that when light impinges upon an object it is either transmitted, reflected, or absorbed, depending on the nature of the object; in the case of most paints it performs all three of these actions, in varying degrees.

The practical lesson that oil and tempura painters of the present day have learned from this is that the ground and underpainting always have some effect on the final painting, even when not apparent, and that pictures must be built up carefully with this point in mind.

Correct procedure calls for keeping the ground and underpinning as white or pale as possible, superimposing darks over lights (so far as the nature of work allows), and, whenever possible, scraping down or removing any substantial thick or dark areas when these are to be overpainted or obliterated for the purposes of making corrections. If two pictures were identical except for the fact that one was painted upon a brilliant white background and one of a black background, the difference between them would be immediately apparent; any departure from a pure white ground or from strickly necessary underpainting will produce an effect which tends towards that of a black ground. It is especially important to use the whitest sort of ground and the pale underpinnings when glazes and veils are employed.

There are few activities other than the use of artists' paints where opaque and transparent color effects are manipulated and where their differences are significant.

There are many aspects of color and light, each of which is a study or field in itself, such as color harmony, color classification or notation, and color considered from aesthetic, psychological, or scientific viewpoints. These are important studies in their own right. The present account is simply an outline of phsical and optical considerations which are relevant to the technology of painting materials and methods.

The schematic below summarizes many the effects on how light interacts with materials that artists often employ.

Reference:
[1] The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques, R. Mayer (ed. E. Smith) 4th Edition, Faber and Faber, London (1981).

Traditional Indian Textiles - Part IV [1]ArtClothMarie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below, the other posts in this series:
Traditional Indian Textiles - Part I
Traditional Indian Textiles - Part II
Traditional Indian Textiles - Part III
Traditional Indian Textiles - Part IV

Introduction [1]
The earliest textile finds were made at Mohenjo-daro, an archaeological site of the third millennium BC on the Indus River.

The Indus River is located in Asia, originating in the Himalayas and flowing through north-western India and along the length of Pakistan to empty into the Arabian Sea. The river basin spans Pakistan, India, China, and Afghanistan.

Archaeological ruins at Moenjo-daro, a UNESCO World Heritage Centre.

At that site, woven and madder-dyed cotton fragments wrapped round a silver pot had been preserved by the metallic salts that impregnated the cloth. The use of madder dye made fast with a mordant and the presence of dye vats at the sight, testify to an advanced understanding of the process of color mixing on cloth, and relief-carved stone sculpture from the dig clearly depicts figures draped with patterned cloth. Spindles were found at Mohenjo-daro and used, most probably to wind weft threads when working at a wooden loom; the presence of bronze needles at the site suggests that this Bronze-Age civilization embellished its woven cloth with embroidery or supplementary threadwork on the loom. From this evidence we may surmise that some peoples of the sub-continent were at least two, perhaps three millenia in advance of the European world in the preparation and use of cotton and mordanted dyestuff.

Traditional Indian Textiles - Part IV [1]

A young girl of the Meghwal caste tassel-making in Hodka village in Banni Kutch.

Goat-hair belt made using the split-ply method - from west Rajasthan.

Ishwar Singh, of Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, preparing a split-ply camel girth of goat hair.

'Dharaniyo' (cover for a pile of quilts), with floral designs and an embroidered border, made by the Ahir herders in Kutch. The central field is of 'roghan' work (the design is printed on with a mixture of thickened oil and pigment).

The three images below are 'Chaklas' (i.e., square hangings).

Made by the Rabari of Kutch.

Made by the Bharwad, or the Charan, Saurashtra.

A Ganesh chakla made by the Ahir herders, Saurashtra.

Double and single-ikat cotton 'sakapar' sari, with detailed border.

From Sambalpur District, Orissa.

Reference:
[1] Traditional Indian Textiles, John Gillow and Nicholas Barnard, Thams and Hudson, London (1993) ISBN 0-500-27709-5.

The Art of Aubrey Beardsley - Part I [1]Artist's ProfileMarie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below other posts featuring Aubrey Beardsley:
Art Nouveau - Part I
Art Nouveau and Symbolism of the 1890s
The Art of Aubrey Beardsley - Part I

Introduction [1]
The art of Aubrey Beardsley is hors concours. Indeed, has not Max Beerbohm, born the same month and year, said he belongs to 'The Beardsley period'? He said that ironically, after Bearsdley had been dead for a half a century.
Note: Sir Max Beerbohm (1872–1956) was an English essayist, parodist, and caricaturist. Known for his sharp wit and refined style, he captured the absurdities of the late Victorian and Edwardian literary scenes. Walter Sickert (1860–1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who helped bridge the gap between Impressionism and Modernism.

Aubrey Beardsley.

It is this paradox that makes it hard to classify Beardsley. He is modern, yet he died before Walter Sickert or Augustus John had been heard of by the general public.

His work belongs, perhaps, to that rare kind of limbo of the aesthetic atmosphere to which might be assigned the Preludes to Wagner's Operas, the pencil heads of John, the paintings of Wilem Maris or of Leonardo, some piano music of Chopin, the poetry of Keats and the Fête Champêtre of Watteau. The cold purity of their perfection seems to ban the emotion they arouse.

Portrait of Wilem Maris by Floris Arntzenius.

Like Aeschylus and Mr. Williams (renowned scholar) he has indeed "created the taste by which he is enjoyed." His art was new at the time of its making, it is still new today, although more familiar to us: he created that taste for his work that we, the onlookers, admire. His followers, or rather his imitators, have never really grasped his essential quality, namely, the cold, clear, biting line, the perfection of balance in his design, his amazing economy of beautiful detail, his daring use of black and white mass, and his unerring instinct for correct values.

That such rare and important qualities should be found altogether in one draftsman is most unusual. But they should be allied to great intelligence, a ready wit, a sardonic humour and an erotic temperament is probably unique.

It is this alliance of craftsmanship and character that makes Beardsley at once so easy and so difficult to criticize. Every drawing of his maturity gives evidence of his individual way of looking at a subject, whether it be a Victorian interior, a Greek play, an eighteenth century poem, at woman looking at some books, an early seventeenth-century satire, or an airy nothing - an armour being interred in a powder box by a pierrot and a satyr.

Besides his extreme youth and maturity, another paradox is noticeable. He was most sensitive to the zeitgeist (i.e., spirit of time) of later British Victorians. Not a foible, fashion or custom was missed by that acute mind: the Burne-Jones craze, the yellow-backed French novel, the Japanese print, the whistler nocturne and the Whistler leacock room. He saw the uproarious posters of Chéret, the poster-like lithographs of Toulouse-Lautrec, the woodcuts of Charles Rickettes, the garish gaslit London streets that Jack the Ripper roamed. He heard the mot (i.e., young girl) of Oscar and the gibe of Jimmy at the critics.

Gaslit London streets that Jack the Ripper roamed.

All these, and a dozen other tricks and fancies, he observed and transmuted into his own design and made something as distinct as a Chinese bronze of the Warring States, or a modern ballet in his time by Massine.

In "Les Presages" Massine visualizes the music in his dynamic use of sculptural groupings and fluid, lyrical adagios.

The Art of Aubrey Beardsley - Part I [1]

Title: The Kiss of Judas.
Comment [1]: From the Pall Mall Magazine, July 1893. One of two drawings he made for this periodical.

Title: The Woman in the Moon, 1893.
Comment [1]: From Salome by Oscar Wilde. John Lane, 1894. The drawing has little connection with the play. A caricature of Wilde in the moon.

Title: The Peacock Skirt, 1893.
Comment [1]: From Salome by Oscar Wilde. John Lane, 1894. The drawing strongly influenced by the Japanese print through Whistler's Peacock Room.

Title: The Black Cape, 1893.
Comment [1]: From Salome by Oscar Wilde. John Lane, 1894. The drawing has no connection with the play and is a caricature of the fashion of the period.

Title: A Platonic Lament, 1893.
Comment [1]: From Salome by Oscar Wilde. John Lane, 1894. A caricature of Oscar Wilde appears in the sky.

Title: John and Salome, 1893.
Comment [1]: Intended for Salome but suppressed. It was published in later editions.

Title: Enter Herodias, 1893.
Comment [1]: For Salome by Oscar Wilde. John Lane, 1894. First state hitherto unpublished. A caricature of Wilde in the foreground. In the original drawing the right-hand figure was nude, as here, and the artist afterwards drew a fig-leaf for the published drawing. On some proofs of the First State he wrote:

'Because "on" figure was undressed
This little drawing was supressed,
It was unkind, but never mind,
Perhaps it was all for the best.

Title: The Eyes of Herod, 1893. From Salome by Oscar Wilde. John Lane, 1894.
Comment [1]: Another drawing influenced by Whistler's Peacocok Room, and with a butterfly in the top left corner. Wilde is again caricatured.

Reference:
[1] The Best of Beardsley, R.A. Wlker, Spring Books, Great Britain (1948).

Chinese Clothing: A Historical Overview - Part III [1]Wearable ArtMarie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below other posts in this series on Chinese textiles:
Chinese Textiles: Amy Clague's Brocade Collection - Part I
Chinese Textiles: Amy Clague's Tapestry Collection - Part I
Chinese Textiles: Amy Clague’s Tapestry Collection - Part II
Chinese Textiles: Amy Clague’s Embroidery Collection - Part I
Chinese Textiles: Amy Clague’s Brocade Collection - Part II
Chinese Clothing: A Historical Overview - Part I
Chinese Clothing: Shenyi and Broad Sleeves - Part I
Chinese Clothing: Shenyi and Broad Sleeves - Part II
Chinese Clothing: A Historical Overview - Part II
Chinese Clothing: A Historical Overview - Part III

Chinese Clothing: A Historical Overview - Part III [1]
After 1840, China entered the modern era. Coastal cities, especially metropolises such as Shangai, with their mixed population of foreign and native residents, led the change towards western style under the influence of European and American fashion trends. Industrialization in textile weaving and dyeing in the West brought about the import of low cost materials, gradually replacing domestic materials made in traditional ways. Fashionable and intricately-made ready-to-wear garments in 'western' styles found their way onto the Chinese market, and large-scale, machine operated dress-making, became more popular than the time-consuming traditional techniques of hand rolling, bordering, inlay and embroidery.

At the end of the 19th Century, sewing machines imported from western countries had already been used in the traditional clothing industry.

Looking back at the twentieth-century Chinese clothing, we see a wide array of styles of qipao, cheongsam, the Sun Yet-sen uniform, student uniforms, western suits, hats, silk stockings, high heels, lenin jackets, military uniforms, bell-bottoms, flairs, jeans, mini-skirts, bikinis, punk styles, "Guochao" or "National Tide," which fuses traditional Chinese elements with contemporary designs of everyday wear. Key trends included the revival of traditional garments like hanfu and cheongsam, integrated with modern details such as unique tailoring, embroidery, and new materials. This movement reflected a growing national pride and a desire to blend cultural heritage with modern aesthetics.

The qipao now regarded as the typical Chinese dress style, only became popular in the 1920s. Originating as Manchurian woman's dress, incorporating Han clothing techniques and styles of twentieth century western dresses, it has now evolved into a major fashion item within the international fashion industry.

Floral pattern, jacquard silk satin long Qipao.

China is a country made up of fifty-six ethnic groups that have continually interacted, and have undergone continuous transformation in dress style and customs.

The traditional image of a Chinese worker wearing a front closure Chinese jacket.

Students of Beijing University, wearing Scottish-checked skirts in the 1950s.

Fashionable young people on the streets in Beijing.

Style distinctions are not only evident between different dynasties, but are also quite pronunced, even in different periods within the same dynasty. The defining characteristics of Chinese clothing are bright colors, skilled craftsmanship, and ornate detail.

Modern Cheongsam Jacket.

Diversity in style can be seen between different ethnic groups, living environments, local customs, lifestyles as well as aesthetic tastes. Chinese folk clothing is deeply rooted in the daily life and activities of the people, with many traditional folk styles and accessories. They embrace embroidered keepsakes, coil hats and raincoats made of natural fiber, not to mention the handmade children's tiger-head hats and shoes as well as pig-head shoes and cat-head shoes.

Tiger Head Hat - handcrafted embroidery design.

The progress of modernization is having an effect on the ethnic character of dress style. However, in rural areas, a wide array of beautiful garments and ornaments are still very much part of the local lifestyle and landscape, which is in direct opposition to city life, where designers and fashion shows shape what city residents are wearing.

Shanghai Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2026, takes place from October 9th to 16th. Over 80,000 industry insiders — including thousands of global guests — will gather across the city for a spectacular lineup of first shows, first exhibitions, as well as first unveilings of fashion. More than 1,000 brands will showcase their latest collections across 10 plus iconic fashion landmarks, redefining what’s next in fashion, through bold formats as well as visionary creativity. As a globally influential platform, SS26 will deepen collaborations with international powerhouses, while activating the city’s rich creative energy, thereby driving “FIRST in Shanghai,” as well as creating momentum across new products, and technologies in various business ventures.

Reference:
[1] Chinese Clothing, H. Mei, Cambridge University Press (2011).