Printed Textile: 'Les Monuments de Paris', c.1816-18 (copperplate and block print on cotton plain weave)

This furnishing fabric was designed by the prominent architect Hippolyte Le Bas, one of several well-known artists who worked for the factory; his drawing was engraved onto a copper roller for printing onto the cotton by Nicolas Auguste Leisnier. The composition, which is typical of the early nineteenth-century Neoclassical style, shows a repeat of four elaborately framed scenes of Parisian monuments: to the left, the statue of Henri IV and the Pont Neuf with the Pantheon; to the right, the Fontaine des Innocents with the Louvre. Each vignette is connected to a medallion portrait of the sovereign who reigned when the monuments were erected. Designed by Louis Hippolyte Lebas (1782-1867), manufactured by Oberkampf, Jouy-en-Josas, France (1760-1843) and engraved by Nicolas Auguste Leisnier (1789-1862)