Textile Design with Alternating Lozenges over a Striped Background of Intermittent Lines
Medium
Gouache
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 5/16 × 2 3/4 in. (5.9 × 7 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Museum Accession, transferred from the Library
Accession Number
1978.671.5(18.3)
Art Historical Context
This delicate gouache design from 1840 captures the inventive spirit of Alsatian textile production during the early Industrial Revolution. Created by an anonymous artist in the Alsace region—a historic center of French and German textile manufacturing—the small sheet offers a window into how patterns were developed for fabrics used in clothing and home furnishings. Its compact size, just over two by two-and-three-quarter inches, suggests it served as a practical working model, allowing designers to test repeating motifs before scaling them up for looms. The composition features alternating l...