Object Timeline

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2018

2025

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Book, Traité théorique et pratique de l'impression des tissus (Theoretical and Practical Treatise of Textile Printing)

This is a Book. It was printed by G. Silbermann.

This object is not part of the Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection. It was able to spend time at the museum on loan from Smithsonian Libraries and Archives as part of Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color.

It is dated 1846. Its medium is lithograph on paper.

This book was originally created to aid textile designers in the technical aspects of printing multicolor calicos. Later in the 19th century, Impressionist painter George Seurat cited Traité as influential to development of his own novel style of painting, known as pointillism. It was believed that a color mixed on the retina through optical mixing, where small areas of color appear to blend into a new color, would be more luminous than one mixed on the palette.

It is credited Bequest of Elinor Merrell, Smithsonian Libraries, TP930 .P46X.

Its dimensions are

H x W (open): 32 × 49 cm (12 5/8 × 19 5/16 in.)

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color.

There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-6.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/1108749867/ |title=Book, Traité théorique et pratique de l'impression des tissus (Theoretical and Practical Treatise of Textile Printing) |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=19 March 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>