Hippolyte Le Bas was born in 1782 and died in 1867.

He was a pupil of Charles Percier (architect to Bonaparte) at the pinnacle of Percier's career, and won second prize for Architecture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in 1806 (nine years before the fall of the Emperor Napoléon).

He entered the Institut de France in 1825 and the following year became an architect in the Bâtiments Civils.

In 1816 Le Bas was working on Château du Montcel at Jouy near Paris, the residence of Madame Oberkampf, widow of the textile entrepreneur.

Her son Emile, who had taken over production at his father's factory, asked Hippolyte to design some fabrics - an exercise totally foreign to his training.

The results were highly decorative, and even today are not fully appreciated for their fine drawing, strong colour and masterly composition.

This new Neo-Classical idiom became the period image of the Napoleonic "Empire" style.

Oberkampf had been awarded the Légion d'Honneur in 1806 by Napoléon, who was eager after his coronation to re-establish France as Europe's cultural as well as military vortex.

Le Bas, with Emile Oberkampf, reinterpreted the Empire Style in textile terms into the 1820s.

In 1822 the Jouy factory was sold to Jacques Juste Barbet, a calico printer from Rouen.

The Empire Style developed in England as the Regency Style, in the USA as the Federation Style, and later in Germany and Austria as Biedermeir.

It is in homage to Hippolyte Le Bas, a neglected designer, that ROBERTSON MEAD has produced its own Neo-Classical toile in his manner, so that his work may be more widely known and enjoyed.