Design for a Box-lid
1699–1773
Medium
Pen and brown ink over graphite underdrawing
Dimensions
2 9/16 x 2 9/16in. (6.5 x 6.5cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Fletcher Fund, 1944
Accession Number
44.54.43
Tags
Art Historical Context
Hubert François Gravelot (1699–1773), a leading French Rococo designer and engraver, created this delicate *Design for a Box-lid* as a preparatory drawing for luxury decorative objects popular among the 18th-century elite. Measuring just 2 9/16 x 2 9/16 inches (6.5 x 6.5 cm), its intimate scale reflects the exquisite detail required for snuffboxes or jewelry cases, where such vignettes adorned lids to delight owners with playful scenes. Executed in pen and brown ink over a graphite underdrawing, the work showcases Gravelot's masterful technique: the faint graphite lines sketch composition and...
About the Artist
Hubert François Gravelot
Hubert-François Bourguignon, known as Gravelot (1699–1773), was a leading French Rococo engraver, illustrator, and designer whose elegant draftsmanship bridged the artistic worlds of France and England. Born in Paris to a tailor, he adopted his pseudonym from a godfather and grew up alongside his elder brother, the geographer Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville. After neglecting studies at the Col...