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Jean-Démosthène Dugourc (designer; French, 1749–1825) and Camille Pernon (manufacturer; French, 1753–1808)
Wall Panels, ca. 1799
Lyon, France
Woven silk and metal thread with applied silk and chenille embroidery; 8 ft. 9 in. x 29 in. (2.68 m x 74 cm); 9 ft. 6 3/4 in. x 26 1/4 in. (2.92 m x 67 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Acquisitions Fund, 2006 (2006.519a, b)

Curator Comment

These wall panels were designed as part of a major decorative commission executed by Jean-Démosthène Dugourc and were intended to decorate the billiard room of the Casita del Labrador in Aranjuez, the rural pleasure palace built for King Charles IV of Spain between 1791 and 1803. The panels were produced by Camille Pernon, a premier producer of luxury silks in Lyon. They represent a technical tour de force in their harmonious integration of woven, embroidered, and applied decoration; it is extremely rare for fabrics to survive in such pristine condition.

Dugourc was named Dessinateur du Garde-Meuble de la Couronne in 1784; from 1786 he also worked for the Spanish court. He was responsible for the decoration of a number of rooms at the Casita del Labrador, but these panels project the strongest statement of his typically eclectic use of motifs, here based on Raphael's decorations of the Vatican Loggia, in turn inspired by Roman wall paintings.

Melinda Watt, assistant curator, Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts