À la mémoire de J. M. Jacquard

Name: Ragnar Digital, LLC
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Michel-Marie Carquillat

1839

Textile

Jacquard Loom woven silk, after a painting by Claude Bonnefond, published by Didier, Petit et Cie, Lyon.
27.5x20.8" in a period giltwood frame.

Description

This portrait of Joseph-Marie Jacquard, inventor of the punched-card loom, was woven in silk on a Jacquard loom in Lyon in 1839, five years after his death. Claude Bonnefond's painting was translated into a program of about 24,000 punched cards, one card for each row of weave. The master weaver Michel-Marie Carquillat wove it for the Lyon firm Didier, Petit et Cie.

Charles Babbage owned a copy of this work and showed it to his guests as proof that a machine reading punched cards could make a picture of any complexity. Punched cards became the means of programming his Analytical Engine, and Ada Lovelace wrote in 1843 that the engine "weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves." The portrait is often cited as one of the first images made by a programmed machine.