Gudme Leth - Pillow - Cherry
Marie Gudme Leth was an outstanding Danish textile artist who achieved great recognition both in Denmark and internationally. Now her iconic pattern Cherry is being printed again.
Stock Item
The vibrant and cheerful bird pattern nestled among cherry and peach branches holds an iconic place in Danish arts and crafts. Queen Ingrid’s endorsement elevated its popularity, adorning one of the princesses’ rooms. Inspired by the Danish flora, Marie Gudme Leth—a skilled draftsman—designed this elegant and airy composition in the early 1940s. During the challenging times of World War II and the German occupation of Denmark, the need for bright colors and indoor cheerfulness led to the creation of this pattern. Notably, the cherry pattern was the first to be meticulously transferred onto fabric using a novel photographic technique, allowing for even greater precision in its execution
The textile is hand-printed, the individual prints may vary.
The material is 100% linen with pigment color.
19.68" 19.68"
50 x 50 cm
Design by: Marie Gudme Leth
Design year: 1940
Marie Gudme Leth was born in 1895 in Aarhus, where she grew up. At the age of 18, she entered the Art Industry School for Women and then followed a few semesters of teaching at the Academy of Arts.
In 1921, Marie Gudme Leth traveled to Java, where she stayed for three years. Here she saw how print and fabric could be part of a whole, and what beauty values they contained. She also had the opportunity to study the many processes that the batik craft consists of.
When Marie returned home, she wanted to further her education in fabric printing. In Denmark, however, there was no longer any tradition to build on. In the 18th and 19th centuries there had been printers and dyers both in Copenhagen and in the province, but during the 1800s the country was flooded with foreign industrial products that completely suffocated the old craft.
Now fabric prints were mainly imported from German and English factories, and Marie Gudme Leth found them "unpleasant and ugly". She didn't just want to turn her drawings into fabric prints on a hobby level, she wanted to turn fabric printing into a Danish craft that could compete with the imported fabrics - and would like to outdo them on the basis of quality and beauty.
Gudme Leth wanted to put fabric printing on the world map, and she succeeded. She participated in a large number of exhibitions abroad, and everywhere her printed fabrics were received with great enthusiasm. Among other things, she received a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937 and at the Triennale in Milan in 1951. In the 1950s, her textiles were exported with great success to the USA and Canada in particular.
In 2006, Marie Gudme Leth's life's work became part of the Ministry of Culture's Cultural Canon for Design and Crafts.