Collection record · Dress & textiles
The Four Continents
The collection record classifies this work as textile. It is dated 1790. Recorded culture or place: France.
Explore the object recordOBJECT RECORD
A closer look at the details.
- Museum title
- The Four Continents
- Date
- 1790
- Culture / origin
- France
- Materials and technique
- Cotton: copperplate printed
- Dimensions
- Overall: 112.1 x 81.3 cm (44 1/8 x 32 in.)
- Artist / maker
- Christophe Philippe Oberkampf (French, 1738–1815); Jean-Baptiste Marie Hüet (French, 1745–1811)
- Museum
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Accession number
- 1929.6
FROM THE MUSEUM
In the museum’s words
The following description is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s original English record.
Inspired by printed cottons from India, European manufacturers began printing textiles from copper plates in the 1750s. Originating in Ireland, the technique quickly spread to France where it flourished. Here, Jean-Baptiste Marie Huet I depicted female personifications of the four continents alongside their native flora and fauna. Although the artist based the plants and animals on real specimens observed at the Royal Botanical Gardens, he derived the personifications from racist stereotypes that imagined Europe as culturally superior: while Europe sits enthroned with symbols of the arts and knowledge at her feet, Africa wears an elephant headdress, America hunts an alligator, and Asia prays to a false god.
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Text and image sources
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Gift of Gregor Norman Humphreys · CC0
The summary is based on public collection data. Refer to the museum’s latest record for the title, date and attribution.
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