Scrapbook with Textile Designs on Colored Papers

Anonymous, French, 19th century

19th century · Pastel on prepared colored paper · Drawings and Prints

Album with pasted in sheets of prepared colored paper onto which large botanical patterns have been applied in colored chalks. The colors of the paper vary from black, green, and blue to a deep purple and an orangey-red. The paper is prepared on one side only. Some of the designs are excuted in white chalk alone, while others make use of a bright color palette. Various patterns are drawn free-hand, but in certain cases a stencil may have been used to transfer (part of) a design. Most of the patterns are for allover schemes and are meant to be repeated. They range from straightforward natural representations of flowers to fantastical interpretations, some of which seem inspired by Chinoiserie patterns. A number of the sheets have been ripped out of the album. Two sheets of nature prints pasted on dyed blue paper, and another nature print on white paper are added at the back of the album. They are dated 1838 and 1839.

Artist

Anonymous, French, 19th century

Date

19th century

Medium

Pastel on prepared colored paper

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of the Estate of Benjamin E. Marks, 1967