Artwork
Design for a screen
Design for a screen is a watercolor work on paper by Percy Wyndham Lewis. It dates from 1913 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
About this work
This watercolour is titled Design for a screen. It was created by the English artist Percy Wyndham Lewis.
The screen that these designs were made for was first shown at the opening of the Omega Workshops in 1913. This gives us a sense of the context in which the design was created.
To learn more about the techniques used in this period, look up the technique of sfumato.
Overview
Percy Wyndham Lewis’s watercolour, titled Design for a screen, presents a decorative scheme intended for a functional screen. Executed in transparent washes, the work exemplifies early‑twentieth‑century British design experimentation, linking fine art with applied objects.
History & Provenance
The design was produced for a screen that debuted at the opening of the Omega Workshops in July 1913. The workshop, founded by members of the Bloomsbury Group, showcased avant‑garde decorative arts, and Lewis’s contribution formed part of that inaugural exhibition.
Technique & Style
Rendered in watercolour, the composition employs subtle gradations of tone, a quality reminiscent of the sfumato approach, allowing forms to dissolve into one another. The fluid handling of pigment reflects the modernist interest in abstraction and decorative pattern.
Context
Created during a period when artists sought to blur the boundaries between painting and design, the work aligns with the Omega Workshops’ mission to integrate art into everyday objects. Lewis’s involvement illustrates his engagement with collaborative, interdisciplinary projects characteristic of the pre‑World War I British art scene.
Artist & collection
Artist
Percy Wyndham Lewis was a Canadian-born British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited Blast, the literary magazine of the Vorticists.
