Point Paper (mise-en-carte)

Leblanc (Firm) · c. 1880

Medium

Opaque watercolor (gouache) over graphite with black ink on mold paper

Original size

42.7 × 49.7 cm (16 7/8 × 19 5/8 in.); Matted: 46 × 55.8 cm (18 1/8 × 22 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Realism

This meticulous point paper is a rare surviving window into the hidden labor behind nineteenth-century woven textiles — a working document as visually precise as any finished fabric it helped create. The Leblanc firm operated within France's industrious textile design trade, producing mise-en-carte drawings that translated decorative patterns into the grid-based language of the Jacquard loom. Each square on the ruled paper corresponds to a single warp or weft thread, making the composition both an artwork and a technical instruction manual. The gouache was applied with exacting control — opaque enough to clearly signal color to the loom operator, yet delicate enough to preserve the graphite underdrawing that structured the design. The use of black ink outlines adds a graphic clarity that was as functional as it was elegant. Point papers of this quality were rarely intended for public display; most were discarded once production ended, which makes institutional holdings like the Art Institute of Chicago's collection especially significant for understanding how pattern design actually worked on the factory floor. The hand-painted oil reproduction honors both dimensions of the original — its decorative beauty and its quiet precision — rendering the geometric rhythm and layered color work in a medium that gives the composition new permanence on the wall.