Design for a Clock
18th century
Medium
Pen and black and gray ink, brush and gray wash
Dimensions
sheet: 18 1/16 x 14 1/2 in. (45.8 x 36.8 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949
Accession Number
49.50.376
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate *Design for a Clock*, by an anonymous French artist in the 18th, exemplifies the exquisite ornamental draftsmanship of the Rococo era. Rendered in pen and black and gray ink with brush and gray wash on generous sheet measuring 18 1/16 x 14 1/2 inches, it served as a preparatory blueprint for a luxury timepiece. Such designs were essential in the workshops of Parisian ébénistes and bronziers, where clocks were prized status symbols adorning the salons of the aristocracy. The composition bursts with intricate motifs: swirling palmettes and leafy scrolls evoke classical antiquity, ...
About the Artist
Anonymous, French, 18th century · 1700–1800
The artist known as Anonymous, French, 18th century, represents a collective of unidentified talents active roughly between 1700 and 1800, a period of profound artistic evolution in France from the opulent Rococo to the austere dawn of Neoclassicism and Revolutionary fervor. Little is documented about their personal training or mentors, as their anonymity obscures individual biographies, though th...