Printed Cotton c. 1941

This printed cotton, by Ernest Capaldo, shows a careful building of layered forms and subtle colour variations, like a painter finding their way through a composition. I see a real sensitivity to the making process. The ground is a deep, earthy brown, almost like raw umber, over which the floral pattern repeats. There’s an interesting tension here: the fabric design flattens the flowers and foliage but also creates a sense of depth. Look at the way the pale blue and cream petals and leaves have been applied; they’re not quite opaque, allowing the brown underneath to peek through. It’s in these moments that the material asserts itself. In the lower-left corner, there’s a cluster of flowers where the colours blend softly, creating an almost watercolor effect. It reminds me of Vuillard, who also found ways to evoke the domestic interior in his painting. This fabric feels like a conversation, each colour and shape responding to the others in an ongoing exchange. It’s this ambiguity, this openness to different interpretations, that makes the work so engaging.