1755
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Persian Flowers is a 1755 by Jean Pillement, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see six tall, wispy flowers on a plain background—each one looks like a mix of a lily and a sea creature. These aren’t real blooms. Pillement made them up, calling them “Persian” to sound exotic. His designs ended up on wallpaper, fabrics, and teacups across Europe. The flowers are simple to draw, so printers loved them. If you like these, look up *chiaroscuro*—a way artists use light and shadow to make flat things look deep.
Jean Baptiste Pillement was one of the most influential designers of the Rococo period, known for his varied and prolific chinoiseries (European variants of Chinese and Japanese motifs). His designs were spread throughout Europe primarily via their translation into prints. This print is one of a set of six etched by Pillement himself. Each depicts a so-called “Persian” flower, largely fantasies, presenting strange, alien-like floral forms that could be adapted to various uses from textiles to wall decorations.
The artist Jean Baptiste Pillement was employed by Marie Antoinette to create decorations for her legendary retreat, the Petit Trianon, at Versailles.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Jean-Baptiste Pillement (24 May 1728 – 26 April 1808) was a French painter and designer, known for his exquisite and delicate landscapes, but whose importance lies primarily in the engravings done after his drawings,…
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