Panel Design
Classification
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Purchased for the Museum by the Advisory Council
Accession Number
1921-6-296-3
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
Claude-Louis Desrais created this Panel Design in 1789, the same year the French Revolution began. Born in 1746, the Paris artist worked during a period of dramatic political and cultural change, producing drawings and prints that captured the tastes of late-eighteenth-century France. Though the exact medium remains unknown, the work is classified as a print, suggesting it was intended for wider circulation or as a model for decorative panels in interiors or furnishings. Now part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection, the piece was acquired through the Advisory Council, undersco...