T is for Toile de Jouy

Closely linked with the 18th century, it bears the indelible imprint of the Jouy-en-Josas factory. But the name covers a broad range of painted calicoes and an equally huge collection of colorful motifs.

The success of patterned calicoes, imported from India in the late 16^th century and imitated in Europe from the 17^th century onwards, was due not to the printing on the fabric so much as the patterns’ resistance to washing. Since antiquity, India has been a past master in producing cotton, whose woven yarn provides a light, strong cloth that can hold almost indelible colors “dyed in the wool”, so to speak. The printing technique, similar to xylography, involves applying a series of wooden blocks to the textile. The relief pattern on the block is first coated with mordants: metallic salts that impregnate the fabric with a solution designed to trap the colored pigments. The wooden relief is then impregnated with color and pressed against the fabric. Polychrome motifs are divided between different blocks, one for each color in the design, and applied to the fabric in turn. In India, and later in Europe, madder red and indigo blue were the most commonly used shades before chemical colors were invented in the 19^th century. The print might be combined with pre-dyed fabrics, either fully or reserve dyed, and enhanced with hand-painted brush details. The number of colors and complexity of the techniques used determined the value of a cloth, whether produced in India or Europe. In the second half of the 18^th century, Europe broke new ground with the development of copperplate intaglio engraving for patterns that were finer but in monochrome only. In France, in 1803, plates became rollers and printed the patterns continuously, first eliminating clumsy matches and then gradually replacing hand-printing based on woodblocks or copper plates.

The Jouy factory was disrupted by the French Revolution, but found a second wind under the Empire.

Despite these innovations, European painted calicoes were still dependent on imported raw materials, mainly cotton and indigo, until the 20^th century. Cotton was undoubtedly the cornerstone of this textile revolution. Before it, the only colored patterns in Europe were achieved with embroidery or weaving. But the colors, the lightness and soon the price of cottons directly threatened French silk and wool factories. In 1686, to protect national production, the Treaty of Louvois decreed a total ban on printed Indian cottons in the kingdom. It was now forbidden to import, manufacture or wear these fabrics. France’s neighbors reacted to this competition less stringently. Contraband in both Indian and European painted cloth began to flourish: an activity supported chiefly by Switzerland and Germany, as well as in Marseille, which was exempted from the ban in 1703. The vital raw materials passed through its port and supplied local factories. Until the prohibition ended in 1759, Marseille was the only place in France where printed calicoes could be found.
 

Oberkampf’s Success

In 1760, Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf (1738-1815) began producing printed calicoes in Jouy-en-Josas. He was not alone: cotton print factories also developed in Mulhouse, Nantes, Orange, Lyon and Rouen, but they were no competition for the factory that soon conquered Versailles. This was because Oberkampf’s brilliant technical skills and a gift for innovation and communication made him highly successful at court. At first, he produced luxurious polychrome chintzes for clothing and furnishings, many of them designed by Mademoiselle Jouanon and inspired by Indian palampores. By offering a wide range of graded qualities, he catered to all classes of society. After that, copperplate printing led to the birth of a new style influenced by English figurative scenes and Rousseauist ideas. Mainly intended for the bourgeoisie, these designs were the work of the Academician painter Jean-Baptiste Huet, who began working with the factory when it was awarded royal status in 1783. With their pastoral, hunting and everyday scenes, animal and antique motifs, scientific and cultural novelties, “toiles de Jouy” reflected current events and fashions, like wallpapers, which they complemented as “meubles à personnages”: furnishing materials depicting narrative scenes, which were used in armchairs, beds and curtains. Oberkampf cleverly adapted his calicoes to suit regional tastes, such as flowers on a dark background known as “ramoneur”’ (“chimney sweep”), or the rural decor of “Bonnes Herbes” for his Provençal clientele. However, woodblock printing was still used for royal commissions, like the ”Great Pineapple” fabric in Marie-Antoinette’s private chambers at Versailles.

Posterity: A Style More Than a Factory

The Jouy factory was disrupted by the French Revolution, but found a second wind under the Empire, despite the blockades and wars that made the supply of raw materials problematic. Stripes and mignonettes (characteristic small repetitive patterns in one, two or three colors) arose from the innovation of roller printing. The brand-new solid green Jouy invented in 1806 did away with the laborious process of brushing yellow onto blue. As modern tastes were extremely varied, the charming figurative motifs created in the previous century were still printed. They went out of fashion under the Restoration, but made a comeback with the historicist trend of the Second Empire. Initially intended for the bourgeoisie, they were later incorporated into princely interiors and became iconic examples of painted calico. From then on, “toile de Jouy” became more of a style than a production method, and its influence is still seen today in fashion and furniture.