Panel from a Set of Bed Hangings

Currently not on view

Panel from a Set of Bed Hangings

1785-1790

Printed by Petitpierre Frères et Cie, Nantes, France (1770–1791)

This design was the first copperplate print made by the firm Petitpierre in Nantes, France. Its title "Panurge dans l'île des lanternes" (Panurge on the Island of the Lanterns) is taken from the three-act opera by André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry (1741-1813) produced in 1785, which was itself inspired by François Rabelais's novel Gargantua and Pantagruel (1534). In the opera, the librettist Etienne Morel de Chédeville uses a description from Jean Baptiste du Halde's book Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique et physique de l'empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise (1735) to give the imaginary island inhabited by literary charlatans a fashionable Chinese association. In the textile, these references are subtle: lanterns and several vaguely Chinese-like figures, including one fishing from a bridge.

Currently not on view

Object Details

Title:

Panel from a Set of Bed Hangings

Date:

1785-1790

Artist:

Printed by Petitpierre Frères et Cie, Nantes, France (1770–1791)

Medium:

Copperplate print on cotton plain weave

Dimensions:

7 feet 6 inches × 39 inches (228.6 × 99.1 cm) Pattern Repeat: 40 x 37 1/2inches (101.6 x 95.3cm)

Classification:

Textiles

Credit Line:

Gift of Charles H. Ludington, 1926

Accession Number:

1926-51-1a

Geography:

Made in Nantes, France, Europe

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Currently not on view