Design for a ceiling painted with putti in clouds with roses
second half 19th century
Medium
Oil on laid paper; mounted on wove paper
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Dodge Fund, 1967
Accession Number
67.827.436
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the lavish interiors of 19th-century Europe, ceiling designs like *Design for a Ceiling Painted with Putti in Clouds with Roses* captured the era's fascination with opulent decoration and classical revival. Created in the second half of the century by French artists Jules-Edmond-Charles Lachaise and Eugène-Pierre Gourdet, this preparatory drawing evokes the playful Baroque tradition of putti—those cherubic infants symbolizing love and joy—frolicking amid fluffy clouds and blooming roses. Such motifs drew from Renaissance and Rococo influences, adorning palaces and grand homes to create illu...
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...