Ever since I was a child, I have had the same lavender romance themed toile de Jouy curtains on my windows, paying homage to my French heritage. When I had asked my mom about the images of the cherubs and couples in countryside landscapes, she would explain that toile patterns always told a story. To help me fall asleep, I would create stories in my head about the different people and scenes pictured around my room.
While at home during the COVID quarantine, I spent more time with those toile images from my childhood, a nostalgic form of comfort during tumultuous times. I became even more fascinated studying the history of the toile fabrics and comparing their pre-Revolution French origins with the current political discussions. The patterns came to represent not only my personal memories of those childhood stories but also how I have changed over the years, finding my own place in the world. This Toile de Jouy project is an exploration to confront and modernize those nostalgic stories, images and subjects, exploring the interactions between photographer, viewer, models and their pastoral, picturesque environments. Just as these scenes were an idealized escape for the French in the years prior to the Revolution, these images represent a refreshing break from the chaos of our current times. As described in a recent New York Times article "Why We Reach for Nostalgia in Times of Crisis": "nostalgia serves as a kind of emotional pacifier, helping us to become accustomed to a new reality that is jarring, stressful and traumatic."
Christophe-Philipe Oberkampf opened his fabric factory south of Paris in Jouy-en-Josas in 1760, selling his new toile patterns to wealthy patrons in nearby Versailles and cheaper versions to a more mass general clientele. Many of the traditional patterns he sold recalled carefree scenes of figures frolicking romantically or happily working in the idyllic countryside.
The toile fabrics were popular throughout France and embraced the style and imagery in the general culture of the time. Jean-Honore Fragonard painted happy lovers lounging or swinging under trees and Marie Antoinette recreated an idealized peasant village to enjoy with her friends. Louis XVI granted Oberkampf’s factory “the designation of Manufacturer Royale. Its pastoral designs became favorites of the French court, especially Marie Antoinette, who espoused the back-to-nature philosophy of Jean-Jacque Rousseau. After the French Revolution, Napoleon presented Oberkampf with the Legion of Honor.”(Palmer)
The toile stories served as an escape from the turbulent politics that would lead to the French Revolution. At the same time, they celebrated the idealized lifestyle of the countryside everyman, resulting in its embrace by both the French nobility and the New Republic. Reflecting on this aspect of toile patterns in light of our current political situations I found echoes of our current concerns for nature with climate change, unequal wealth distribution, and powerful calls for political change in the 2020 election.
This project brings the nostalgic stories into the present, exploring how these childhood fairytales fit into a retreat from the issues that encroach into and have transformed our everyday lives today. Sneaking away from the computer screens, cell phones, disease, divisiveness, and politics that have overwhelmed 2020, this cast of characters have escaped into the dreamy world of nature, inviting the viewer to languish together in calm beauty and bliss.
Follow on Instagram @chloedugourdphotography