Design for Five Vases
ca. 1770–85
Medium
Pen and gray and brown ink, watercolor, and black chalk
Dimensions
14 7/8 x 9 3/16 in. (37.8 x 23.3 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Raphael Esmerian, 1961
Accession Number
61.680.1.18
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate *Design for Five Vases created by an anonymous French artist around 1770–85, captures the elegance of late 18th-century ornamental design. Rendered in pen and gray and brown ink,, and black chalk on a modest sheet measuring 14⅞ × 9⅛ inches, it showcases five varied vase forms, likely intended for luxury production in porcelain, silver, or glass. The intricate motifs—featuring birds and male figures—hint at the playful yet refined decorative vocabulary of the Rococo-to-Neoclassical transition, evoking abundance and classical inspiration popular in Louis XVI-era France. As a prepa...
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...