Four Nude Women Surrounded by Putti, Approaching an Altar
1765–1800
Medium
Pen and gray ink, gray wash
Dimensions
Sheet: 7 15/16 × 13 1/16 in. (20.2 × 33.1 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 2014
Accession Number
2014.780
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the late 18th century, count and amateur artist Carl August Ehrensvär crafted *Four Nude Women Surrounded by Putti Approaching an Altar*, delicate drawing dated between 1765 and1800. This evocative scene captures four graceful female nudes, accompanied by frolicsome putti—those cherubic child figures beloved in European art—processioning toward a classical altar. The composition evokes rituals or mythological offerings, blending sensuality with reverence in a style influenced by the emerging Neoclassicism, which drew inspiration from Greco-Roman antiquity amid the waning Rococo era. Execut...