No. 3: Tangs and Sponges
1934
20th Century
37 1/2 in. x 31 in.
Beatrice Pope Hoffman,
(February 5, 1885–May 1, 1957)
Object Type:
Decorative Art
Medium and Support:
wool
Credit Line:
Florence Griswold Museum; Gift of Mrs. John Hoffman
Accession Number:
2004.13.2
Beatrice and Harry Hoffman traveled together to the tropics beginning in the winter of 1916. The trips provided Beatrice with inspiration for her work in the decorative arts, which including weaving. For the Undersea Room she and Hoffman designed for their house in Old Lyme, he painted a multi-panel frieze of fish and coral, and she loomed tapestries of similar subjects from hand-dyed yarn. Beatrice employed the French Gobelin technique to produce a weaving with intricately detailed shadows that lend the fish, sponges, and coral a three dimensionality. The couple exhibited their undersea tapestries and paintings at museums in Dayton and Milwaukee in 1935, and installed them in their Connecticut home.