Design for a Secretary
ca. 1770–85
Medium
Pen and black ink, brush and gray, brown and yellow wash. Framing lines in pen and black ink
Dimensions
15 7/16 x 9 in. (39.2 x 22.9 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Raphael Esmerian, 1959
Accession Number
59.611.10
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate drawing, titled *Design for a Secretary*, captures the elegance of late 18th-century French furniture design. Created anonymously around 1770–85, it depicts a refined writing desk—known as a *secrétaire*—with compartments for books and papers, fall-front writing surface, and cabriole legs, hallmarks of the transitioning Rococo to Neoclassical styles. Such pieces were crafted for the opulent interiors of French aristocracy, blending functionality with lavish ornamentation just before the Revolution upended social hierarchies. Executed in pen and black ink with brush and gray, bro...
About the Artist
Anonymous, French, 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...