Axial Commons Image Treasury
Brown monochrome printed cotton with scenes of figures, an elephant, palm trees and a rooster on a cream ground.

"Four Quarters of the Globe"

A cream cotton furnishing fabric printed in brown monochrome with repeating vignettes of figures, an elephant, palm trees, and a large rooster. Crisp engraved-style lines and open, scattered composition give the field a lively, narrative rhythm typical of toile printing.

Look closer: A small bird flies above the palm tree at the lower left, easily overlooked among the larger figures.

Artist
Jean-Baptiste Huet I
Date
ca. 1788
Medium
Cotton
Source
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Size
2362 × 3893 px
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Public domain · The Metropolitan Museum of Art releases this image under CC0 (latest date 1793).
Rights checked 2026-11-05 · tier A · as stated by the source: CC0 (The Met Open Access, isPublicDomain=true)

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1941

Maps and Cosmos18th centurytextilepastoral sceneelephantroosterdecorative textilebrown monochromejean-baptiste huetprinted cottontoile de jouypalm trees

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