Design for Landaulet, no. 970
Medium
Pen and black in, watercolor and gouache with gum arabic
Dimensions
sheet: 6 13/16 x 9 3/4 in. (17.3 x 24.8 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of William Brewster, 1923
Accession Number
23.112.1434
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate design drawing captures a landaulet, a fashionable open carriage popular in the mid-nineteenth century. Created by the renowned New York firm Brewster & Co. in collaboration with designer Channing Britton between 1850 and 1870, the sheet shows the vehicle’s elegant lines, folding hood, and refined proportions. As a working design rather than a finished painting, it reveals how coachbuilders planned custom vehicles for wealthy clients who valued both comfort and style. The medium—pen and black ink with watercolor and gouache—allowed the artist to convey both precise structural de...
About the Artist
Brewster & Co.|Channing Britton
**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...