Design for Tomb Monument
18th century
Medium
Graphite and gouache
Dimensions
image: 6 5/16 in. (16 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Emma Avery Welcher and Amy Ogden Welcher, 1965
Accession Number
65.639.14
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate *Design for Tomb Monument*, created by an anonymous French artist in the 18th century, offers a glimpse into the ornate funerary art of the Rococo era. Rendered in graphite and gouache on paper—measuring just 6 5/16 inches (16 cm)—it exemplifies the preparatory sketches used by architects and sculptors to plan grand memorials. Gouache, with its opaque, vibrant pigments, allowed for vivid rendering of forms, while graphite provided precise underdrawing, highlighting the technical finesse of French draftsmanship during a time when elaborate tombs honored the elite. The composition...
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...