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Printed Fabric
Oberkampf Manufactory (Jouy-en-Josas, France)
1780s
- Medium
- Linen and cotton plain weave; block printed
- Classification
- Textile
- Dimensions
- 173.7 × 81.7 cm (68 3/8 × 32 1/8 in.); Repeat: 31.3 × 40.2 cm (12 3/8 × 15 7/8 in.)
- Culture
- Jouy-en-Josas
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Textiles
- Credit line
- Purchased with funds provided by Mrs. Chauncey B. Borland
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
European manufacturers never successfully replicated Indian techniques for hand painting chintz (derived from the Hindi name for them, chint) fabrics, which were labor intensive and required thorough knowledge of the complex chemistry of natural dyes. After struggling with technical challenges for decades, Europeans improved color block printing techniques during the late 18th century. These advances enabled manufacturers to print multiple colors on a single fabric to more successfully imitate the brilliantly colored chintzes made in India.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
