Design for the decoration of a wall in Islamic motifs
second half 19th century
Medium
graphite on tracing paper glued to cardboard
Dimensions
sheet: 11 5/8 x 7 1/2 in. (29.5 x 19 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Dodge Fund, 1967
Accession Number
67.827.193
Art Historical Context
This delicate drawing, titled *Design for the Decoration of Wall in Islamic Motifs was created by French artists Jules-Edmond-Charlesachaise and Eugène Gourdet in the second of the 19th. Rendered in graphite on tracing paper glued cardboard (11 5/8 x 7 1/2 in.), it exemplifies sketches used by architects and designers to propose intricate wall decorations. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, it captures the era's fascination with exotic patterns. In the late 19th century, European decorative arts were swept up in Orientalism—a movement romanticizing Isla...
About the Artist
Jules-Edmond-Charles Lachaise|Eugène-Pierre Gourdet · 1897–1897
Jules-Edmond-Charles Lachaise, born Jules Lachaise on September 2, 1836, in Paris, emerged as a prominent French painter and draughtsman specializing in lavish interior decorations during the Second Empire and beyond. Little is known about his early life and formal training, though he married Berthe Gourdet in 1866, forging a close professional partnership with her brother, the decorator Eugène-Pi...