Design for a ceiling
second half 19th century
Medium
Graphite and watercolor
Dimensions
Overall: 14 3/4 x 10 3/8 in. (37.4 x 26.4 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Dodge Fund, 1967
Accession Number
67.827.523
Art Historical Context
Welcome to the Metropolitan Museum of's Drawings and Prints collection, where you'll find *Design for a Ceiling*, delicate preparatory drawing by French artists Jules-EdmondCharles Lachaise and Eugène-Pierre Gourdet from the second half of the th century. Created with graphite and watercolor on paper (measuring 14 3/4 x 10 3/8 inches), this work captures the era's fascination with grand interior decoration, likely intended for an opulent public or private space during France's Second Empire or early Third Republic periods. Ceiling designs like this were essential blueprints for lavish archite...
About the Artist
Jules-Edmond-Charles Lachaise|Eugène-Pierre Gourdet · 1897–1897
Jules-Edmond-Charles Lachaise, born Jules Lachaise on September 2, 1836, in Paris, emerged as a prominent French painter and draughtsman specializing in lavish interior decorations during the Second Empire and beyond. Little is known about his early life and formal training, though he married Berthe Gourdet in 1866, forging a close professional partnership with her brother, the decorator Eugène-Pi...