Design for a Decorative Wall Panel with Profile Portraits, and a Study for a Column
19th century
Medium
Watercolor on wove paper (wall panel); pen and ink (column)
Dimensions
sheet: 6 3/8 x 10 1/16 in. (16.2 x 25.5 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1966
Accession Number
66.683.5
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate 19th-century French drawing, created anonymously, presents a design for an elegant wall panel adorned with profile portraits of men, paired with a precise study for a classical column. Rendered on a modest sheet of wove paper measuring just over 6 by 10 inches, it captures the refined aesthetic of ornamental architecture from the era. The profiles, likely evoking ancient Roman or Renaissance cameos, suggest a nod to classical antiquity, a popular motif in French decorative arts amid the historicist revivals of the Napoleonic and Restoration periods. The artwork employs watercolo...
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...