Cotton cloth production and printing developed in India and was brought to the Europe through early explorers and colonizers. Indian cotton woodblock print cloth’s increasing popularity led to a ban on its import in England to protect the countries wool industry. In the mid eighteenth century England lifted the import ban leading to a flurry of new printing techniques and a race to develop efficient mass production print. Copperplate printing came into fashion in the 1750s developed by Francis Nixon and Theophlius Thompson in Dramcondra, Ireland. The technique quickly spread to London before J.P. Oberkampf took the technique to France creating the distinctive and prolific Rococo style typical of “Toiles de Jouy” prints.  Copperplate prints were created through etching thirty-six by thirty-six copper squares then running the cloth and plate through a press to transfer the image. Due to the level of detail and minimal color pallet, copperplate printed cloth typically depicted scenic or narrative designs. Copperplate production allowed for more detailed and larger scale printing but monochromatic made it ideal for bed furnishing and drapes. Since the cloth was printed through copper etching compared to woven or wood block printing, designs were quickly mass produced making cloth a vehicle for political messages as well as fashionable designs.  

    Oberkampf’s signature “Toiles de Jouy” of black, blue, or red ink detailed scenes printed onto white, buff, or cream cotton cloth remained fashionable from the mid eighteenth century throughout the nineteenth century. The UMMA example features idealized peasant scenes of windmills and dilapidated buildings alongside romantic ruins of aristocratic pleasure gardens. Farm animals, courting couples, peasant workers, and peasant leisure people the cloth framed by a naturalistic leaf pattern. “Toiles De Jouy” was printed in France the majority of the market was in England, newly independent United States of America, and the Atlantic colonies. With revolutionary furor in the late eighteenth century, this type of imagery was in high demand creating a means of Romanizing and legitimizing the ideal peasantry.