Weeping willow and urn with hidden silhouettes of the French royal family
Medium
Hand-colored etching
Dimensions
Plate: 6 13/16 × 4 5/8 in. (17.3 × 11.8 cm) Sheet: 9 5/8 × 6 1/8 in. (24.4 × 15.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Glenn Tilley Morse Collection, Bequest of Glenn Tilley Morse, 1950
Accession Number
50.602.211
Tags
Art Historical Context
This hand-colored etching, created between 1794 and 1815, stands as a poignant memorial to the French royal family in the turbulent years after the Revolution. Produced anonymously during a period when open expressions of loyalty to the monarchy could be perilous, the print depicts a weeping willow and funerary urn that cleverly conceal the silhouettes of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and their son Louis XVII. The willow’s drooping branches and the urn’s solemn form evoke mourning, while the hidden profiles invite close inspection, transforming the image into both a tribute and a subtle act of ...
About the Artist
Anonymous|Louis XVII|Louis XVI, King of France|Marie Antoinette, Queen of France
In the vast tapestry of art history, "Anonymous" stands not as a singular individual but as a collective designation for countless unidentified creators whose works have endured across millennia. These artists, spanning prehistoric cave painters to medieval illuminators and folk craftsmen, produced the foundational layers of human visual culture. Prior to the Renaissance, when individual fame emer...