Page from a Scrapbook containing Drawings and Several Prints of Architecture, Interiors, Furniture and Other Objects
ca. 1800–1850
Medium
Pen and black and gray ink, graphite, black chalk
Dimensions
15 11/16 x 10 in. (39.8 x 25.4 cm)
Classification
Albums|Drawings|Prints|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1963
Accession Number
63.535.124(a–c)
Art Historical Context
This captivating page from abook, created by the renowned French architects Charles Percier and Pierre Françoisard Fontaine around 1800–1850, offers a glimpse into the opulent design world of Napoleonic France. Filled with meticulous drawings and prints of architecture, interiors, elegant furniture, and decorative objects, it showcases the duo's mastery of Neoclassicism and the Empire style Percier and Fontaine, close collaborators and imperial designers under Napoleon Bonaparte, revolutionized interiors by blending ancient Roman grandeur with modern functionality, influencing palaces, furnitu...
About the Artist
Charles Percier|Pierre François Léonard Fontaine · 1764–1838
Charles Percier (1764–1838) rose from humble origins in Paris, where his mother laundered for Marie-Antoinette and his father served as a porter at the Tuileries Palace, to become one of France's most influential neoclassical architects and designers. From age twelve, he attended a free drawing school for indigent students, honing his skills in the studio of painter Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée be...