Design for a panel ornamented with strapwork and rinceaux
Medium
graphite and watercolor on wove paper; mounted on blue wove paper
Dimensions
Overall: 14 3/4 x 10 3/8 in. (37.4 x 26.3 cm) image: 12 5/8 x 6 1/4 in. (32 x 15.9 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Dodge Fund, 1967
Accession Number
67.827.293
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate design drawing captures the collaborative vision of Jules-Edmond-Charles Lachaise and Eugène-Pierre Gourdet, two 19th-century French artists who specialized in ornamental decoration. Created between 1830 and 1897, the sheet presents an elegant vertical panel featuring strapwork—interlaced bands that evoke leather or metal—and rinceaux, graceful scrolling vines with stylized leaves. Such motifs drew from Renaissance and classical traditions, which remained popular in the Victorian era for enriching furniture, interiors, and architectural details. Executed in graphite and watercol...
About the Artist
Jules-Edmond-Charles Lachaise|Eugène-Pierre Gourdet · 1897–1897
Jules-Edmond-Charles Lachaise, born Jules Lachaise on September 2, 1836, in Paris, emerged as a prominent French painter and draughtsman specializing in lavish interior decorations during the Second Empire and beyond. Little is known about his early life and formal training, though he married Berthe Gourdet in 1866, forging a close professional partnership with her brother, the decorator Eugène-Pi...