Mise-en-Carte (Point-Paper)

Description

Designs for silk weaving were drawn by professional artists who had often trained in flower painting, a skill that could be deployed for the decoration of objects besides textiles. The designs were painted on the point paper grid, which then served as a guide to the person mounting the threads on the loom. The artists’ names do not appear on these technical drawings; only the companies that commissioned the designs and wove the silk are identified.

Provenance

Wolfgang Ruf, Gallerie Ruf, Rastatt, Germany, by 1996 [invoice, May 11, 1995; incoming receipt RX20745, June 8, 1995; copies in curatorial object file]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1996.

Mise-en-Carte (Point-Paper)

Germain Frères

1760s

Accession Number

148920

Medium

Opaque watercolor over etching in black ink on cream laid paper

Dimensions

Image: 42.5 × 52.8 cm (16 3/4 × 20 13/16 in.); Plate: 44 × 53 cm (17 3/8 × 20 7/8 in.); Sheet: 45 × 55.7 cm (17 3/4 × 21 15/16 in.)

Classification

design

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Purchased with funds provided by Neil P. Frankel, Nina Hancock, Robert D. Kleinschmidt; Royalties from F. Schumacher and Company