Carreaux normand is a popular woven fabric with a red, white and black checkerboard design. The gingham, called vichy normand, is used in France for tablecloth and napkins. Gingham fabrics such as the carreaux normand and the fine pink cotton gingham/vichy or guingan were often used by the artist’s mother, Paulette Dupré (née Berthelot).
Guingans were originally manufactured on the Coromandel Coast, India and imported from Pondicherry, the head quarter of the French East Indian Company.
Photos © Carl Fox, Photography
Images © Françoise Dupré Archive
Carreaux normands, 2019, wall installation.
Stitch: Running stitch/Point devant.
Washi (Japanese paper), Kozo (mulberry); DMC Mouliné Spécial, stranded cotton embroidery thread; linen thread; dowel pine rod; white metal rings; ink printed motif transferred from early-20th century rubber cylinder.
0m70 H (variable) x 0m62 W x 0m08 D 1m70 H from floor
Vichy, Paulette, 2019, wall piece
Stich: Running stitch/Point devant.
Washi (Japanese paper), Kozo (mulberry); DMC Mouliné Spécial, stranded cotton embroidery thread; dressmaking steel pins.
0m46 H x 0m62 W
Françoise Dupré, Couture 