Design for a Festival Display of Fireworks (recto); Small Figures by a different hand (verso)
18th century
Medium
Black chalk with touches of red chalk (recto); red chalk and graphite (verso)
Dimensions
11 x 18 1/2 in. (28 x 47 cm) (irregular)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1968
Accession Number
68.729.4
Tags
Art Historical Context
This exquisite 18th-century drawing, attributed to Laurent Hubert and the celebrated French Rococo designer Juste Aurèle Meonnier, captures the exuberant spirit of grand public festivals. On theo, delicate black chalk lines accented with touches of red chalk sketch a dramatic design for a fireworks display, featuring towering architectural structures that frame bursts of pyrotechnics. These preparatory studies evoke the opulent spectacles of the French court and civic celebrations, where fireworks symbolized triumph and delight, often choreographed against temporary pavilions and scaffolds. T...
About the Artist
Laurent Hubert|Juste Aurèle Meissonnier (French|French) · 1780 |1695 –1780 |1750
French, died ca. 1780|French, Turin 1695–1750 Paris