Design for a Chair Seat Cover with an Ornamental Frame with Two Restling Putti with Hanging Garlands of Leaves and Flowers Inside a Larger Ornamental Frame Featuring a Heart-Shape Motif
1870–1900 (?)
Medium
Watercolor and Gouache
Dimensions
Sheet: 15 1/16 × 9 7/16 in. (38.3 × 24 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949
Accession Number
49.50.184(b)
Art Historical Context
This delightful design for a chair seat cover, by an anonymous French artist around 1870–1900, captures the exuberant spirit of 19th-century arts. Rendered in and gouache on a sheet measuring 15 1/16 × 9 7/16 inches, it features two playful wrestling putti—chubby, mischievous cherubs—framed by cascading garlands of leaves and flowers. These lively figures nestle within a larger ornamental border highlighted by a prominent heart-shaped, evoking romance andy. In late 19th-century France during the opulent Second and early Belle Époque, such preparatory drawings were essential for luxury furnitu...
About the Artist
Anonymous, French, 19th century · 1800–1900
**Anonymous, French, 19th Century (ca. 1800–1900)** The artist cataloged as Anonymous, French, 19th century embodies the enigmatic yet essential contributions of unidentified creators to France's vibrant 19th-century art world. Active roughly between 1800 and 1900, this figure—or potentially collective workshop—produced a diverse array of works amid the nation's transition from Neoclassicism thro...