La Recolte des Ananas

Taken from a series known as “The Story of China”, this tapestry shows the Empress overseeing the harvest of exotic pineapples. The scene is distinctly Chinese, with a pagoda shown in the background. The farmers are hard at work, harvesting the fruit, which is a mix of native and non-European species. “La Recolte des Ananas” was believed to have been originally commissioned by Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, the son of Louis XIV of France. The scene is unlike anything the artist would have seen at the time, so it’s likely the tapestry was woven sometime before the 1660s, when Jesuits first returned from Asia with art that included such exotic subject matter. Six of the original 10 tapestries can be seen at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. This reproduction is true to the original in easy way. It comes lined along the back and has a tunnel for easy hanging.