Man's Informal Robe

Textiles

Mid-18th century

Made in Coromandel Coast, India, probably for the Indonesian market

This type of robe was called a banyan in 18th-century Europe, but the style was worn around the world. This garment could have belonged to a native of Sumatra, or a Dutch trader living in what is now modern-day Indonesia. Dutch settlers who came to the region with the Dutch East India Company (a global commercial and colonial enterprise founded in 1602 that established a major administrative hub on the island of Java soon after) often adopted regional clothing styles, such as this Indian painted cotton, which may have been manufactured for the Indonesian market.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Textiles

Title: Man's Informal Robe
Places: Sumatra (Object found in), Indonesia (Object found in), Southeast Asia (Object found in), Asia (Object made in), Coromandel Coast (Object made in), India (Object made in)
Date: Made 1725-1775
Medium: Cotton, plain weave foundation; painted and resist-dyed
Dimensions: 109.2 × 135.6 cm (43 1/4 × 53 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Grace R. Smith Textile Endowment
Reference Number: 2016.176
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Art Institute of Chicago, Elizabeth F. Cheney and Agnes Allerton Textile Galleries, Fabricating Fashion, Aug. 20, 2022–Jan. 2, 2023, no. cat.

Private collection, Japan, from c. 2005 [reportedy acquired in Sumatra, Indonesia, according to personal communication from T. Murray; copy in curatorial object file, Textiles Department]; sold to Thomas Murray, Mill Valley, CA, 2015 [invoice no. 2895, inventory no. 6255, June 1, 2016; copy in curatorial object file, Textiles Department]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2016.

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