Essex Hunt

This printed cotton and monk’s cloth furnishing fabric was designed by Ruth Reeves (1892-1966) for W. & J. Sloane in 1930. Reeves trained with Fernand Léger (1881-1955) during the 1920s and was influenced by his Cubist paintings. She produced a wide range of printed and woven fabrics, mainly depicting modern life in America. Her most widely acknowledged commission was for the carpets in Radio City Music Hall in New York. ‘Essex Hunt’ shows alternating scenes of a house at the opening of a meet with hounds in a semicircle around a group of figures on the doorstep and the hunt in full cry. Both scenes are framed by foliage.

Furnishing fabric · New York (City) · 1930. Screen-printed cotton. By Reeves, Ruth. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.