Juliette Elisa Bataille

I discovered Juliette Elisa Bataille’s work by accident while googling contemporary embroidery. Interestingly enough, Bataille’s work is NOT contemporary, which is what interests me the most about it.

Juliette Elisa Bataille was born in 1896 in Pas-de-Calais, France, married in 1917 to an abusive husband and in her 40’s began to exhibit symptoms of mental distress. She was eventually institutionalized where she began creating expressive pastel drawings and these wonderful embroideries. Her emotionally charged stitched lines are placed with finality, and a determined self-assuredness. Incredibly, she only produced these works during a three year period (roughly, 1948-1951) making the few documented pieces still in existence that much more remarkable.

Read more about her and see more work here.