Snuff Box (Tabatière)
1768–69; 1776–78
Medium
gouache miniatures mounted on gold
Dimensions
{"overall":{"height":0.026,"width":0.053,"length":0.07}}
Classification
Metalwork
Department
Decorative Art and Design
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Edward B. Greene
Accession Number
1958.123
Tags
About this artwork
Snuff boxes were highly ornamented functional objects popular among French social elites. They were simultaneously containers for powdered tobacco and a means to communicate social and political status. Often decorated with miniature paintings inspired by popular paintings of the time, the works reproduced on this box are modeled after those of Claude-Joseph Vernet (cover and front panel) and David Teniers the Younger (base, side, and back panels).
About the Artist
Pierre-Nicholas Pleyard (French)
Georges Hugnet (1906–1974) was a multifaceted French artist, poet, writer, and critic whose innovative collages and graphic works bridged Dada and Surrealism. Born in Paris on July 11, 1906, he spent much of his early childhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina, returning to France around 1913. His early life and artistic training remain sparsely documented, with no records of formal art school attendanc...