Scene in a Tavern at Civita Vecchia
Medium
Pen and black ink on blue paper
Dimensions
Sheet: 6 15/16 x 8 3/4 in. (17.6 x 22.2cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1961
Accession Number
61.136.2
Tags
About this artwork
This lively scene captures a moment of popular entertainment in an Italian tavern, drawn by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux during his formative years in Italy. Created in 1858, when the young French sculptor was studying at the Villa Medici in Rome as a Prix de Rome winner, the drawing reveals Carpeaux's keen observational skills and his interest in capturing everyday life with spontaneity and energy. According to the artist's own inscription, this sketch depicts an improvisatore—a singer who improvises...
About the Artist
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux · 1827–1875
Carpeaux's exuberant work was a decisive break from Neoclassical art. He won the Prix de Rome in 1854 and received many portrait bust commissions from the court. His most famous sculpture group is 'La Danse' (1869) made for the Paris Opéra. So bold is its message of bacchanalian revelry that it was vandalized in protest. French artist.