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Textile Design Conversational Animals France, c.1920, RP cotton, AYG D249 02

Title: Textile Design Conversational Animals France, c.1920, RP cotton, AYG D249_02
Design Library Classification: Conversational
Design Library Sub-classification: Animals
Media Type Textile Design
Identifier:
Creator(s): Unknown
Publisher:
Contributor: Design Library
Country France
Language
Subject(s)
Publication Date: c.1920
Image Description: France, c.1920, RP cotton

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Notes

"ANIMALS APPEARED ON textiles as long ago as ancient Egypt, when their significance was mystical and symbolic. In nineteenth- and twentieth-century printed fabrics, the animal chosen is generally designed to look cute or cuddly, exotic or graceful. Until World War II, when farm life was still a reality or a recent memory for many people, prints of agricultural animals such as sheep, pigs, and cows were rare. Exceptions to this generalization are the late-eighteenth-century and early-nineteenth-century European scenic toiles, which were intended for use as home furnishings in upper-class homes, and in these prints, the pastoral images of shepherds and country life were deliberately romanticized. The first textiles printed with images of the fierce big cats were designed largely for export to colonial lands. Few nineteenth-century Western women would have associated themselves with creatures so savage. Today, in the search for "something different," more animal species have become acceptable subjects for prints, though it is still unusual to see a beast popularly considered ugly or scary in a design. Rhinoceroses and bats are almost nonexistent in Western textiles - poor risks in the marketplace."

Source: Design Library