Art Institute of Chicago

“Fables of Fontaine” Furnishing Fabric

Manufactured by Hartmann et Fils (French, founded 1776)

Date

c. 1815

Medium

Cotton; roller printed

Department

Textiles

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

The late 18th and early 19th centuries were an incredibly fertile period for innovation in the European textile industries, especially in the field of direct printing. Decades of experimentation led to the development of a variety of ways to apply color and pattern to cloth, which enabled artists and designers to invent new design vocabularies and quickly respond to cultural trends and ideas. One of the most enduring of these innovations was the ability to print on cloth with copperplates and then subsequently with engraved copper metal rollers. The quality of detail achieved through this method was unrivaled in terms of clarity, precision.

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