Art Institute of Chicago

Point Paper (mise-en-carte)

Roubaix, France

Date

c. 1880

Medium

Opaque watercolor (gouache) over graphite with black ink on mold paper

Culture

France

Department

Textiles

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

This watercolor design of water lilies and other aquatic plants on paper is a mise-en-carte , or weaving draft, meant to serve as a bridge between the original design and the woven textile. Prepared on paper with a grid pattern whose lines represent warps and wefts, such drafts provided instructions for preparing the loom and for color usuage. Professional mise-en-carte readers were sometimes employed to assist the weavers and help them understand the designer's intensions. -A Global View: Recent Acquisitions of Textiles, 2012-2016, April 8-September 5, 2016

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