Textile, printed (Ex-upholstery fabric)
Museum Object Number1957.1330.001 |
Object Name
Textile, printed (Ex-upholstery fabric)
Title
Le Meunier, Sons Fils et l'Âne (the Miller, His Son, and the Ass)
Category
Textiles
Credit Line/Donor
Gift of Henry Francis du Pont
Creator (Role)
Jean-Baptiste Huet (Fabric designer)
Oberkampf Factory (Fabric manufacturer)
Creator Notes
Jean-Baptiste Huet was trained in the studio of Le Prince. He was accepted by the Academy in 1769 as a painter of animals. He started working for Oberkampf in 1783 with his design for Les Travaux de la manufacture (The activities of the factory) and continued until his death in 1811. Throughout his career his style changed as tastes changed. His first genre was pastoral painting around 1773. His next style consists of elements typical of the Louis XVI style. Then from 1796 his work gradually became more geometric. While working with Oberkamf he produced 32 different designs, plus another ten which remained in the preparatory stages. (Riffel, Melanie et. al., Toile de Jouy, 2003, pp. 42-45)Stephanus Oberkampf established a dyeing workshop in Vaihingen-an-der-Enz at the end of the 17th century. Philipp Jacob, his grandson, founded a dyeing workshop in 1732 at Weisenbach, near Ansbach. His son Christoph Philipp Oberkampf began his apprenticeship at the age of eleven and a half at the Ryhiner Factory in Basel. At the age of 17, Christoph travelled to other factories to seek work. At Mulhouse, he worked as an engraver at the Koechli8ne, Dollfus et Cie factory, the Cour de Lorraine. After six months, he was called home to Aarau by his father, where he taught what he had learned to his brother Friedrich Stephan. In September 1758, he was recruited by Francois Simon, an emmisary of the Cottinfactory, to work in the Cottin factory in Paris. He was hired as an engraver and after a six-month trial period became a colorist. At this time his name also changed from Christoph to Christophe-Philippe. After a year, he asked his brother Friedrich, Frederic, to join him. Frederic was employed in a workshop in the Rue Seine-St-Marcel, near the Clos-Payen, in the Gobelins quarter. Frederic then advised his employer to hire his brother Christophe-Philippe, who was now the head of the Cottin factory. On January 2, 1760, Christophe-Philippe and his brother Frederic signed an agreement with Controle General des Finanaces, Antoine Guerne, known as Tavannes, the owner of the small workshop and became a business partners. The brothers decided to move the factory to a less crowded area and decided to set up shop at Jouy-en-Josas, where they rented the Maison du Pont-de-Pierre for nine years. In May of 1760, the brothers produced their first printed piece. Over the next year they came across several issues including complaints from the Manufacture des Gobelins, tanners and leather dressers, the village priest, and the most serious from the Cottin factory after Hafner, a printer at Cottin, left to join Jouy in April 1760. The Jouy factory was able to overcome these obstacles, but found they had insufficient funds to sustain the factories productions, therefore new partners were needed Sarrasin de Maraise became a new prtner and was the one who intervened on the issue with the Cottin factory. Another partnership was formed between Tavannes, Oberkampf, Levasseur de Verville, a Parisian businessman, and Dailly, a trader from Lyon. Tavannes was then edges out by Levasseur, who brought in a new association with a lawyer of the Grenoble Parliament, Sarrasin de Maraise. After March, 1762 Levasseur attempted to take over the company through fraud, and was eventually dismissed in 1772. In 1764 the partners realized a proper factory needed to be built, so they purchesed land from teh Marquis de Beuvron, and the workshops were completed in 1766 with living quarters being built one year later. In 1773 they purchased the Moulin de Quentin, which was renovated to allow for the installation of a roller and millstones needed for grinding colors. The factory continued to expand, purchasing land in1774, 1780, 1782, and 1790. The partnership between Oberkampf and de Maraise was a happy successful one, but in 1789, Oberkampf ended the partnership in order to keep the factory in the Oberkampf family. The Jouy factory continued to expand with many more land purchases made by Christophe-Philippe as well as precautionary purchases. In 1770, he purchased a small calico printing works called L’Indienne, in the Bordes district on the outskirts of Essonnes for his brother Frederic, who ran the print works until he retired in 1796, when it became an annex of the Jouy factory used for bleaching and dyeing. In 1820 the factory L’Indienne was made over to Christophe Widmer, who died in 1822. In 1822, Joseph Dutfoy took over L’Indienne and returned it to its original use for calico printing. He was succeeded by Guillaume-Victor Bousquet, who kept it going until 1860. In 1804, Christophe-Philippe purchased the Chantemerle tanning factory in order to manufacture the cloth which would then be printed at Jouy. The new Chantemerle factory opened in 1810. The factory was run by Oberkampf’s son-in-law Louis Feray, who purchased it in 1821 and severed its connection with Jouy. Christophe-Philppe was eventually succeeded by his son Emile Oberkampf. Emile then became the sole owner of the Jouy factory and went into partnership with his cousin Samuel Widmer in December 1820. In May of the following year, Samuel died, and the company of Oberkampf et Widmer aine was dissolved in October 1821. A new partnership was then formed bytween Emile and Jacques-Juste Barbet, a calico printer from Rouen. The Oberkampf et barbet aine company ended on December 30, 1822 when Emile retired. The factory now belonged to Jacques-Juste Barbet and he styled himself “Barbet de Jouy”, to distinguish himself from his brothers in Rouen. In 1840, while Barbet was in London, he gave powers of attorney to his two sons, Henry and Auguste, to manage the finances of the factory. On June 17, 1843, a shareholders meeting discussed the decreasing cost of cloth and trade outlets. On June 19, 1843 the Jouy factory closed. (Reference: [Book] Bredif, Josette. 1989. Printed French Fabrics: Toiles de Jouy, pp. 24-42)
Date of Birth
10/15/17451760
Date of Death
8/27/18111843
Place of Origin
Jouy-En-Josas, Île-de-France , France, Europe
Date
1800-1810
Subjects
Fable; Morality
Materials
Cotton
Techniques
Woven (plain), Plate printed, Mordant style
Dimensions (inches)
92 (H) , 37 (W)
Dimensions (centimeters)
233.68 (H) , 93.98 (W)
Measurement Notes
Measurements are approximate due to the inherent variability of textiles. Vertical design repeat: 39.5 inches
Object Description
Text available soon.
Bibliography and Bibliographic Notes
[Web Site] 2007 Musee Jean de la Fontaine. 2009 http://www.musee-jean-de-la-fontaine.fr/
• See "Fables en ligne" for fabel text
[Article] Cabot, Nancy Graves. 1949 Some Patterns Sources of 18th and 19th Century Printed Cottons.
• See Plates XV and XVI for fabric and prints featuing this design.
[Book] Bredif, Josette. 1989 Printed French Fabrics: Toiles de Jouy.
• Cited in text: p. 134, second column.
[Book] Bredif, Josette. 1989 Printed French Fabrics: Toiles de Jouy.
• Detail of design and design information, p. 173
[Book] Riffel, Melanie, et al. 2003 Toile De Jouy: Printed Textiles in the Classical French Style.
• Image of printed textile and information on design, p. 150, fig. 204
[Book] Storey, Joyce. 1974 The Thames and Hudson Manual of Textile Printing.
• Information on mordant style, pp. 11-12
[Chapter] Bide, Martin. Secrets of the Printer's Palette, Colors & Dyes in Rhode Island Quilts [Book] Welters, Linda & Ordoñez, Margaret. Down by the Old Mill Stream: Quilts in Rhode Island. 83-121.
• Information on mordant style, pp. 88, 101-104
[Book] D'Allemagne, Henry-René & Clouzot, Henri. 1942 La Toile Imprimée et les Indiennes de Traïte. II.
• Image of pattern, vol. II, pl. 159
[Book] Clouzot, Henri. 1928 Histoire de la manufacture de Jouy et de la toile imprimee en France.
• Image of pattern, pl. 34
[Book] Blum, Dilys E. 1997 The Fine Art of Textiles: The Collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
• Image of textile with same pattern and information on manufacture, p. 41 fig. 66