Design for a Candlestick
Medium
Classification
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Purchased for the Museum by the Advisory Council
Accession Number
1921-6-212-8-b
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, a French designer born in Italy in 1695, produced this print titled *Design for a Candlestick* in 1748, near the end of his career. Active during the Rococo era, he specialized in lavish decorative schemes that blended architecture, goldsmithing, and ornamental arts, capturing the period's taste for fluid, asymmetrical elegance. As a print, the work allowed Meissonnier's inventive ideas to reach artisans and patrons far beyond his studio, a vital practice in 18th-century Europe for circulating fashionable designs. Candlesticks like the one depicted here were not mere...