Design for Coupé (unnumbered)

Art Historical Context

This delicate drawing presents a side view of an elegant coupé carriage, its compact body painted in deep blue and black with crisp red trim along the wheels. The large spoked wheels dominate the composition, while a small lantern hangs inside the passenger compartment and a driver’s seat extends forward. Rendered with fine pen lines and smooth watercolor washes accented by gouache, the design sits lightly on the page, emphasizing the vehicle’s graceful proportions against a plain background. Brewster & Co., one of New York’s leading carriage makers in the nineteenth century, produced this design between 1850 and 1870. Such presentation drawings allowed clients to preview the latest styles in private transport before the rise of the automobile. The careful technique highlights both the craftsmanship of the carriage and the firm’s reputation for refined, functional luxury. Today the sheet forms part of the Metropolitan Museum’s collection of works on paper, preserving a vivid record of Victorian-era mobility.

About the Artist

Brewster & Co. · 1837–present

**Brewster & Co.** Brewster & Company, a premier American coachbuilder renowned for its exquisite carriage designs, was established in 1810 in New Haven, Connecticut, by James Brewster (1788–1866). Born in 1788, Brewster trained as a wagonmaker's apprentice starting at age 16 in Northampton, Massachusetts, before relocating to New Haven, where he set up his workshop and quickly gained acclaim for...