Design for a Token: Trésor Royal 1748
1748
Medium
Red chalk on lined paper
Dimensions
8 1/4 in. (21 cm) diameter
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harry G. Sperling Fund, 1979
Accession Number
1979.10.2
Tags
Art Historical Context
Edme Bouchardon’s “Design for a Token: Trésor Royal 1748” offers a glimpse into the refined world of eighteenth-century French official art. A leading sculptor of the period, Bouchardon was celebrated for his elegant, classically inspired figures that bridged the late Baroque and emerging Neoclassical styles. Here he turns his hand to a smaller, more intimate medium: a circular red-chalk drawing, just over eight inches across, created as a preparatory study for a token issued by the Royal Treasury under Louis XV. The sheet’s imagery—figures accompanied by crocodiles, cornucopias, and vases—su...
About the Artist
Edme Bouchardon · 1698–1762
Born 29 May 1698; died 27 July 1762. Bouchardon was a student of Guillaume Coustou, and won the prix de Rome in 1722. He spent ten years (1722-1732) in Rome, Italy working on various projects for Pope Clement XII. In 1732 Bouchardon was recalled to Paris and named sculptor to the king. Bouchardon became a professor at the Académie Royale in 1746. He worked on an equestrian monument of Louis XV, Ki...