Rocaille Ornament Design
Classification
Bound print
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Purchased for the Museum by the Advisory Council
Accession Number
1921-6-213-10
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
Alexis Peyrotte’s *Rocaille Ornament Design* captures the playful elegance of mid-eighteenth-century French taste. Created between 1749 and 1761, the print reflects the Rococo period’s fascination with asymmetrical forms drawn from shells, rocks, and flowing foliage—elements that gave the style its name, “rocaille.” Peyrotte, a noted ornamental designer, contributed to this visual language at a moment when French decorative arts were exported across Europe and the Atlantic. As a bound print, the work would have served as a practical model for craftsmen working in textiles, furniture, metalwor...