Design for an Urn
ca. 1770–90
Medium
Pen and brown ink, graphite
Dimensions
7 1/2 x 9 3/16 in. (19.1 x 23.4 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Raphael Esmerian, 1963
Accession Number
63.547.12
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate *Design for an Urn created by an anonymous French artist around 1770–90, captures the elegance of late 18th-century decorative arts. Executed in pen and brown ink with graphite on paper (7 1/2 x 9 3/16 in.), it exemplifies the preparatory sketches used by artisans to plan ornate objects like vases or funerary urns. During this era, France transitioned from the playful Rococo style to the more restrained Neoclassicism, and such designs often adorned silverwork, ceramics, or furniture, blending classical motifs with refined ornamentation. The drawing's tags—Heads and Urns—highligh...
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...