Designs for Top and Four Sides of a Snuffbox with Scenes depicting the Ascent of a Hot Air Balloon
ca. 1784–89
Medium
Gouache
Dimensions
1: 1 x 3 5/16 in. (2.5 x 8.4 cm) 2: 31/32 x 2 3/8 in. (2.4 c 6.0 cm) 3: 1 x 3 5/16 in. (2.5 x 8.4 cm) 4: 1 x 2 3/8 in. (2.5 x 6.0 cm) 5: 2 1/2 x 3 7/16 in. (6.4 x 8.7 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1965
Accession Number
65.600.1.1–.5
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate set of gouache designs, created by an anonymous French artist around 1784–89, illustrates the top and four sides of a snuffbox adorned with scenes of a hot air balloon's ascent. Crafted during the height of "balloon mania" in late 18th-century France—sparked by the Montgolfier brothers' flights in 1783—these panels capture the public's awe. Tiny crowds of spectators, horses, and the majestic balloon dominate the compositions, reflecting a cultural obsession that turned aviation into a spectacle blending science, adventure, and spectacle. Rendered in gouache, an opaque watercolor...
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...