Waistcoat honoring Leopold II, Archduke of Austria (1790-92): Artwork and History

Waistcoat honoring Leopold II, Archduke of Austria (1790-92) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Probably France.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

The development of colorfast copperplate textile printing led to a boom in printed textiles whose motifs reflected contemporary events and developments in politics, literature, opera, and the like. This unusual waistcoat bears images that refer to the life of Leopold II, Archduke of Austria, including his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor. The ribbon on the right reads Unser Leopold lebe (Long Live Leopold). He served as emperor for only two years before his death in 1792, so it is possible to date this waistcoat with more precision than usual.

Object facts

• Title: Waistcoat honoring Leopold II, Archduke of Austria
• Date: 1790-92
• Artist attribution: Probably France
• Place of origin: France
• Medium: Cotton, plain weave; copperplate printed
• Dimensions: 58.4 × 40.6 cm (23 × 16 in.)
• Type: Costume and Accessories
• Department: Textiles
• Reference number: 1923.1672

Collection credit

Gift of Emily Crane Chadbourne

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.