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Tea cozy, (untitled), ca. 1903
Johannes Christiaan Lebeau
Tea cozy, (untitled),
Johannes Christiaan Lebeau,
*1001

Tea cozy, (untitled),
ca. 1903

Johannes Christiaan Lebeau
*1001
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Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
Ausstellungsstrasse 60
8031 Zurich
Museum map
Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
Toni-Areal, Pfingstweidstrasse 94
8031 Zurich
Pavillon Le Corbusier
Höschgasse 8
8008 Zürich
Museum map
  • (untitled) Johannes Christiaan Lebeau Tea cozy
  • (untitled) Johannes Christiaan Lebeau Tea cozy
  • (untitled) Johannes Christiaan Lebeau Tea cozy
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Listen to the text
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Around the turn of the twentieth century, many artists critical of industrial manufactures and searching for new design forms turned to the design of functional objects. The intricate batik pattern of this tea cozy by Christiaan (or Chris) Lebeau (1878–1945) was the result of many years devoted to studying the intricate textile technique.

Lebeau’s batik process was based on traditional Javanese production. In the simplest terms, the wax dye resist was painted onto the fabric with a tjanting—a copper pouring vessel with a wooden handle. When placed in a blue dyebath (obtained from indigo), the painted design remained uncolored. After removing the wax, these steps were repeated for the brown dyebath (in the Netherlands, obtained from catechu, from a variety of acacia). A great deal of patience and experience was required to achieve successful results in this demanding process. Beginning at the design stage, Lebeau had to take all the peculiarities of the dyes, the fabric, and the dye-resist technique into account. The preparation of the wax presented a particular challenge: the process required the dyebaths to be as cold as possible in order to prevent the wax pattern from melting, yet the wax is prone to cracking when cooled, causing veins of color to appear in the fabric when removed from the dyebath. The nature of this fabric-dying process permitted Lebeau to create exclusive craftwork objects that invariably bore his signature—a welcome distinction for the reformist artist from mass-produced, machine-made products. Jules de Praetere, the newly appointed director of the Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich and its associated museum, was also conscious of the significance of these batik fabrics when he purchased Lebeau’s objects in 1905 and exhibited them shortly afterward. Thus he used their educational potential to inform the public about his ideals with respect to the creations of and education in the applied arts. (Rhiannon Ash)

Teewärmer, um 1903
Entwurf/Ausführung: Johannes Christiaan Lebeau
Material/Technik: Seide, gebatikt
24.5 × 33 × 12.5 cm
Eigentum: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK
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Literature

Mechteld de Bois, Chris Lebeau: 1878–1945, Assen und Haarlem 1987.

Maria Wronska-Friend, Javanese batik for European artists: Experiments at the Koloniaal Laboratorium in Haarlem, in: Itie van Hout (Hg.), Batik – drawn in wax: 200 years of batik art from Indonesia in the Tropenmuseum collection, Amsterdam 2001, S. 106–123.

Mienke Simon Thomas, Dutch design: A history, London 2008.

Image credits

Teewärmer, um 1903, Entwurf/Ausführung: Johannes Christiaan Lebeau
Abbildung: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK

Dekorationsstoff, Umschlagtuch, um 1903, Entwurf/Ausführung: Johannes Christiaan Lebeau
Abbildung: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK

Möbelstoff, Sitzflächenbezug, 1903, Entwurf/Ausführung: Johannes Christiaan Lebeau
Abbildung: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK

Seidenbeutel, um 1900, Entwurf/Ausführung: Johannes Christiaan Lebeau
Abbildung: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / ZHdK

Exhibition text
Christiaan Lebeau – Art Nouveau batik

Like other artists around 1900, the Dutchman Johannes Christiaan (or Chris) Lebeau (1878–1945) took up the textile dyeing technique of batik, which developed particularly on the island of Java. With batik, the pattern is painted onto the fabric with wax and thus remains unchanged when the fabric is submerged in a dye bath. Lebeau’s use of this traditional craft reflects the European reform movement’s aspiration to create artistically sophisticated utilitarian objects.