Fragments of an incomplete cartoon for cotton printing: La Course au Sanglier

About this artwork

Research in Progress

Art Historical Context

Claude-Louis Desrais’s “Fragments of an incomplete cartoon for cotton printing: La Course au Sanglier” offers a rare glimpse into the creative process behind eighteenth-century textile design. Created in 1785 by the French artist, the surviving pieces were intended as a full-scale preparatory drawing, or “cartoon,” for printing a hunting scene onto cotton fabric. The title evokes the excitement of a boar chase, a popular subject that would have appealed to the period’s taste for lively, narrative patterns on clothing and furnishings. In the 1780s, France’s textile industry was flourishing, and skilled draftsmen like Desrais supplied manufacturers with detailed designs that translated into repeatable prints. Although this work remains unfinished, its fragmentary state reveals how artists built complex compositions—layering figures, animals, and landscape elements—before the final engraving or block-printing stages. Now part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection through the generosity of Bridget Mahon, the piece invites visitors to appreciate the intersection of fine draftsmanship and industrial art. It reminds us that many beautiful printed cottons began as careful drawings on paper, bridging the worlds of studio practice and everyday decorative objects.