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French

Textile, ca. 1800

Description

Maker

  • Unknown

Culture

French

Title

Textile

Year

ca. 1800

Medium

Cotton; hand block printed, madder

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • cotton,
  • madder

Dimensions

Length: 49.5 cm (19 1/2 inches)

Type

  • Textiles

Credit

The Francis Crosby Whitehead Collection

Object Number

68.128.263A

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Queen of the Insects

December 11, 2009 - May 9, 2010

These three pieces demonstrate the international appeal of the Chinese manner of rendering the butterfly. Some of the earliest artifacts of Chinese design to reach the West — sumptuous woven and embellished silks and blue-and-white porcelain — conveyed both the rich aesthetic and codified courtly meaning of design from China. Western designers abstracted and reinterpreted these designs in a style that became known as chinoiserie — a process illustrated by the French-produced furnishing textile from the early 19th century, a rather whimsical pastiche in comparison to the magenta Chinese embroidered coat, which was produced for local consumption and filled with specific cultural significance. The third example in this case, a Parsi blouse, which likely would have been worn in an Indian marriage ceremony, shows how meaning can travel successfully from one culture to another. The sumptuous embroidery, the work of Chinese craftsmen, adorning a vibrant magenta silk ground, recalls the auspicious and celebratory nature of the Chinese coat, also suited to a nuptial celebration.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Textile with the accession number of 68.128.263A. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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