Design for a Clock
Medium
Pen and black and brown ink, brush and yellow, green, gray, and rose wash
Dimensions
14 3/8 x 9 5/8 in. (36.5 x 24.5 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Raphael Esmerian, 1960
Accession Number
60.692.7
Tags
Art Historical Context
This exquisite *Design for a Clock*, created anonymously by French artists associated with the renowned Sèvres porcelain manuf around 1781–85, offers a glimpse into the opulent world of late 18th-century French decorative arts Produced on the eve of the French Revolution, reflects the lavish tastes of the aristocracy, when Sèvres—patronized by the royal court—was at its peak, crafting intricate porcelain clocks as status symbols for grand salons. Rendered in pen and black and brown ink with delicate brush washes in yellow, green, gray, and rose, the sheet measures 14⅜ × 9⅝ inches and brims wi...
About the Artist
Anonymous, French, 18th century|French, Sèvres, 18th century · 1700–1800
The artist known as Anonymous, French, 18th century, represents a collective of unidentified talents active roughly between 1700 and 1800, a period of profound artistic evolution in France from the opulent Rococo to the austere dawn of Neoclassicism and Revolutionary fervor. Little is documented about their personal training or mentors, as their anonymity obscures individual biographies, though th...