unknown - Design no. 15 for the Embroidery of a Man's Waistcoat, Unfinished - 1780–1790 - T-Shirt

This is a watercolour and pencil design for the embroidered front of a man's waistcoat, drawn to show painted flowers, sprigs and a small classical structure, with part of the sheet left unfinished.

Visual Elements & Composition

The design sits inside a lavender-grey border that narrows to a point at the lower left, forming a trapezoidal panel. The upper section is a pencil sketch of scattered flower sprigs, left uncoloured. The lower section is painted in cream-toned paper with blue-grey bell flowers, a pink bloom, a flower with a red centre, a spray of leaves with red berries, and a white and violet flower at the right. A small columned structure stands among green sprigs and a row of upright grasses. Small handwritten numbers appear in the margins, including a 26.

Meaning & Symbolism

Pattern drawings like this were prepared for needlework, where a patron or embroiderer chose the design for the visible parts of a garment. Scattered naturalistic flowers were the typical taste of the late eighteenth century, and the small architectural motif and pastoral planting reflect the period's fashion for garden and landscape ornament. The sheet belongs to a group of garment pattern drawings made in France and neighbouring countries around 1780 to 1790, when embroidered waistcoats were a central part of formal dress. The contrast between the painted sections and the pencil sketch records the stages of the work, from outline to colour, before any stitching began.

Wearing the Artwork

A waistcoat front is a panel meant to be seen up close, and this tee carries the design the same way, across the chest where the eye lands first. The sprigs and border read as one composition in the way the original pattern intended, and the unfinished pencil section gives the wearer a clear look at the designer's process. The shirt becomes the garment the drawing was made for.