Library Bookcase, from Chippendale Drawings, Vol. II
Medium
Black ink, gray wash
Dimensions
sheet: 9 x 12 13/16 in. (22.9 x 32.5 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1920
Accession Number
20.40.2(11)
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the elegant world of 18th-century English design with Thomas Chippendale *Library Bookcase*, a precise drawing from *Chippendale Drawings,. II*, dated 1753. Chippendale, a leading furniture maker during the Georgian era, created this as a preparatory study just before publishing his groundbreaking *Gentleman and Cabinetaker's Director* in1754—the first comprehensive trade catalog of furniture designs, which spread his innovative styles across Britain and the American colonies. Rendered in black ink with gray wash on a modest sheet (9 x 12 13/16 in.), the work exemplifies Chippendale...
About the Artist
Thomas Chippendale · 1718–1779
Thomas Chippendale, baptized on June 5, 1718, in Otley, Yorkshire, was born into a family steeped in woodworking traditions, the only child of joiner John Chippendale and Mary Drake. His father likely provided his initial hands-on training in cabinetmaking, supplemented by time in the workshop of York joiner Richard Wood, before Chippendale relocated to London around 1749. He married Catherine Red...