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| Screen-printed cotton and linen for couturier Paul Poiret, by Atelier Martine 1912 France Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Printed cotton ca. 1875-1925 England Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Silk satin damask (monogram and rooster-heads) ca. 1900 France Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Jacquard-woven silk (magnolia blossoms) ca. 1900 France Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Silk satin ca. 1840 France Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
THE ENEMY
My youth was nothing but a lowering storm
occasionally lanced by sudden suns;
torrential rains have done their work so well
that no fruit ripens in my garden now.
Already the autumn of ideas has come,
and I must dig and rake and dig again
if I am to reclaim the flooded soil
collapsing into holes the size of graves.
I dream of new flowers, but who can tell
if this eroded swamp of mine affords
the mystic nourishment on which they thrive . . .
Time consumes existence pain by pain,
and the hidden enemy that gnaws our heart
feeds on the blood we lose, and flourishes!
– from Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire (1857), translated by Richard Howard (1982)
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| Roller-printed cotton ca. 1840 France Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Roller-printed cotton ca. 1830 France Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Printed cotton, designed by Hippolyte Le Bas for Oberkampf & Cie. ca. 1816-18 France Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Block-printed cotton ca. 1700-1800 France Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Block-printed wallpaper (morning glories) ca. 1795-1810 France Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Leather wall-covering, stamped, painted, and silvered ca. 1725 Holland Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Linen and cotton twill ca. 1600-1700 France Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Silk-embroidered purse, with metal frame ca. 1600-1700 England Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Silk appliqué with embroidery on silk velvet ca. 1600-1700 Europe Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Border design with pigments on paper (foliage and shells) undated Europe Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |