Design for a Valance with a Grotesque Motif and Thin Garlands of Flowers and Leaves with a Scrolling Frame
1870–1900 (?)
Medium
Watercolor
Dimensions
Sheet: 15 5/8 × 9 5/16 in. (39.7 × 23.7 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949
Accession Number
49.50.190
Art Historical Context
This delicate watercolor design, created by an anonymous French artist around 1870–1900, showcases a valance—a decorative fabric border often used atop beds or windows in grand 19th-century interiors.ed on a sheet measuring 15⅝ × 9⅜ inches, it exemplifies the ornate ornamentation prized during France's Belle Époque, elaborate patterns adorned homes of the bourgeoisie and aristocracy. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings Prints department (acquired via the Elisha Whittelsey Fund in 1949), it reflects the era's fascination with architectural and textile decoration. At its heart i...
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...