Coronation Regalia Carried in Procession at Saint-Denis
Medium
Pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, over black chalk.
Dimensions
2 1/16 x 4 1/16 in. (5.2 x 10.3 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Jacob Bean Gift, 1984
Accession Number
1984.384
Tags
Art Historical Context
Gabriel de Saint-Aubin’s delicate drawing captures a solemn moment from an eighteenth-century French royal ceremony. Created in 1775, the work depicts attendants carrying coronation regalia—including a prominent cross—through the historic abbey of Saint-Denis, the traditional burial place of French kings. Saint-Aubin, known for his lively sketches of contemporary Parisian and court events, distills the grandeur of the procession into a compact scene filled with human figures in motion. Executed in pen and black ink with gray wash over black chalk, the small sheet (just over two by four inches...
About the Artist
Gabriel de Saint-Aubin · 1724–1780
Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (1724–1780) was one of the most vivid and irrepressible graphic artists of eighteenth-century France, a tireless draughtsman whose sketchbooks and prints constitute an extraordinary visual chronicle of Parisian life during the Ancien Régime. Born into a family with strong connections to the decorative arts — his father was an embroiderer to the king — Saint-Aubin received fo...