Mise-en-carte and Sample for Velours Miniature with Birds, Bird Cages, and Thin Garlands and Bundles of Flowers and Leaves
Mise-en-carte for "velours miniature" (a), a type of velvet that was often decorated with sewing points and repetitive small ornaments with contrasting colors, which was particularly fashionable towards the end of the 18th century and during the reign of Louis XVI, often decorated with colorful garlands of flowers and leaves, as well as other naturalistic motifs and garden trophies. This design is made up of a vertical strip of birds with pink and blue body and yellow crest and wings standing on bird cages colored with yellow, pink and blue, flanked below by scrolling garlands with pink branches and blue and green leaves from which hang scrolling blue branches with yellow leaves and pink flower buds. These motifs stand over a background with tiny checks colored with green, with scalloped borders decorated with blue and yellow scales, and outlined by another scalloping border left unrendered and framed with green, to form the straight edges that the textile would have.
Placed below the mise-en-carte is a fabric sample (b) with a fragment of what would have been part of the finished textile, showing a small stylized rose with pink petals and green pistils and leaves, flanked above and below by scalloping strips of white color, creating volume on the textile.
Placed below the mise-en-carte is a fabric sample (b) with a fragment of what would have been part of the finished textile, showing a small stylized rose with pink petals and green pistils and leaves, flanked above and below by scalloping strips of white color, creating volume on the textile.
Artwork Details
- Title: Mise-en-carte and Sample for Velours Miniature with Birds, Bird Cages, and Thin Garlands and Bundles of Flowers and Leaves
- Artist: Anonymous, French, 18th century
- Date: ca. 1775–1800
- Medium: Watercolor on squared paper; Velvet
- Dimensions: Image: 12 15/16 × 8 3/16 in. (32.8 × 20.8 cm)
Sheet (mise-en-carte, a): 10 5/16 × 5 3/16 in. (26.2 × 13.1 cm)
Sheet (fabric sample, b): 1 9/16 × 3/8 in. (4 × 1 cm) - Classifications: Drawings, Ornament & Architecture
- Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1928
- Object Number: 28.118.21(a,b)
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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