Flower Design: Daffodils and Calla Lilies
19th century
Medium
Watercolor and gouache, over graphite
Dimensions
13 x 18 9/16 in. (33 x 47.1 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Leon Lowenstein Foundation Inc. Gift, 1977
Accession Number
1977.585.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate floral design, created by an anonymous French artist in the 19 century, captures the graceful beauty of daffod and calla lilies in watercolor and gouache layered over a graphite underdrawing. Measuring 13 x 18 9/16 inches, it exemplifies the precision of botanical illustration popular during France's Romantic era, when artists meticulously rendered nature's forms for scientific study, decorative patterns, or textile designs. The mixed-media technique highlights the artist's skill: graphite provides a fine, preparatory outline for leaves and blooms, while translucent watercolor a...
About the Artist
Anonymous, French, 19th century · 1800–1900
**Anonymous, French, 19th Century (ca. 1800–1900)** The artist cataloged as Anonymous, French, 19th century embodies the enigmatic yet essential contributions of unidentified creators to France's vibrant 19th-century art world. Active roughly between 1800 and 1900, this figure—or potentially collective workshop—produced a diverse array of works amid the nation's transition from Neoclassicism thro...