Design for the painted decoration in the Chinese style for the stairway of the house offered by the Empress to the duc de Mouchy on the occasion of his marriage
second half 19th century
Medium
pen and ink and watercolor on laid paper
Dimensions
Overall: 19 5/16 x 13 7/16 in. (49 x 34.1 cm) image: 16 3/4 x 9 1/2 in. (42.5 x 24.2 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Dodge Fund, 1967
Accession Number
67.827.142
Art Historical Context
This exquisite drawing captures a moment of imperial generosity and fashionable exoticism in mid-19th-century France. Created in the second half of the, it is a preparatory design by artists Jules-Edmond-Charles Lise and Eugène-Pierredet—possibly in collaboration with or for the Duc de Mouch—for painted decorations in the Chinese style adorning the stairway of a house gifted by the (likely Eugénie, consort of Napoleon III) to the on the occasion of his marriage. lavish commissions highlight the era's elite penchant for *chinoiserie*, a European interpretation of Chinese motifs that blended fan...
About the Artist
Jules-Edmond-Charles Lachaise|Eugène-Pierre Gourdet|Duc de Mouchy · 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...