Design for a Valance in the Style of Louis XVI with Bundles and Garlands of Flowers and an Ornamental Frame with a Tiger Face
1870–1900 (?)
Medium
Watercolor
Dimensions
Sheet: 17 1/16 × 10 5/8 in. (43.3 × 27 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949
Accession Number
49.50.196
Art Historical Context
This exquisite watercolor design, created anonymously by a French artist around 1870–1900, captures the refined elegance of Louis XVI style in a proposed valance—a decorative textile border for beds or windows. Delicate bundles and garlands of flowers cascade gracefully within an ornate frame crowned by a striking tiger face, blending botanical abundance with whimsical ferocity. Rendered on a sheet measuring 17 1/16 × 10 5/8 inches, the work showcases the precision of 19th-century ornamental drafting, now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department. Louis XVI sty...
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...