Design for a Palace Façade
early 18th–mid 18th century
Medium
Pen and gray and black ink, brush and gray ink, chalk or graphite
Dimensions
13 11/16 x 9 5/8 in. (34.7 x 24.4 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1960
Accession Number
60.632.67
Tags
Art Historical Context
Carl Hårleman's *Design for a Palace Faade* offers a captivating glimpse into 18th-century European architectural ambition. Created between the early and mid-1700s, this drawing by the Swedish architect—renowned for his elegant Rococo designs—likely as a preparatory study for a grand palace exterior. Hårleman, who rose to prominence as Sweden's leading architect under royal patronage, blended French-inspired grandeur with Scandinavian restraint, reflecting the era's shift from opulent Baroque to lighter, more playful Rococo forms. Palaces symbolized power and enlightenment during this Age of A...
About the Artist
Carl Hårleman · 1700–1753
Baron Carl Hårleman (1700–1753) was a pivotal figure in Swedish architecture, born in Stockholm on August 27, 1700, to Johan Hårleman, a renowned garden architect and head of the royal parks ennobled in 1698, and Eva Johanna Baartz. Fatherless at a young age, he followed in his father's footsteps, beginning his training under architects Göran Josua Adelcrantz and Nicodemus Tessin the Younger. In 1...