Mont Blanc Seen from the Massif, Les Aiguilles Rouges
Medium
Watercolor heightened with gouache over traces of graphite on two sheets of blue-gray wove paper (glued together in a vertical seam at left)
Dimensions
sheet: 11 7/16 x 26 1/8 in. (29 x 66.4 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Isaacson-Draper Foundation Gift, 2005
Accession Number
2005.78
Tags
Art Historical Context
Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, celebrated for his restorations of French Gothic cathedrals, reveals another facet of his talents in this sweeping 1874 panorama of Mont Blanc. Created while the architect and theorist explored the Alps, the watercolor captures the majestic massif from the vantage of Les Aiguilles Rouges. The dramatic scale of the peaks reflects the 19th-century fascination with sublime mountain landscapes, which inspired both scientific study and artistic awe. Viollet-le-Duc executed the view in delicate layers of watercolor and gouache over graphite on two joined sheets of bl...