Persian Flowers (1755): Art, History and Details

Persian Flowers (1755) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jean Baptiste Pillement (French, 1728–1808).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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, alienlike floral forms that could be adapted to various uses from textiles to wall decorations.

Object facts

• Title: Persian Flowers
• Date: 1755
• Creator attribution: Jean Baptiste Pillement (French, 1728–1808)
• Culture: France
• Type: Print
• Technique: etching
• Dimensions: Plate: 30.8 x 21.1 cm (12 1/8 x 8 5/16 in.); Sheet: 43 x 29 cm (16 15/16 x 11 7/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 2022.250.1

A detail from the museum

The artist Jean Baptiste Pillement was employed by Marie Antoinette to create decorations for her legendary retreat, the Petit Trianon, at Versailles.

Collection credit

Carole W. and Charles B. Rosenblatt Endowment Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Pillement, Jean, and Léon Riotor. L'oeuvre de Jean Pillement (1727-1808): Chinoiseries, pastorales, paysages. Paris: A. Guerinet, 1931.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.