Design for Interior
19th century
Medium
Pen and black ink, watercolor, with traces of graphite
Dimensions
image: 9 1/8 x 11 15/16 in. (23.2 x 30.3 cm) mount: 9 3/8 x 12 3/16 in. (23.8 x 30.9 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1965
Accession Number
66.547.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate 19th-century German drawing, titled *Design for Interior*, offers a glimpse into the era's fascination with harmonious domestic spaces. Created anonymously by a skilled draftsman, it meticulously depicts architectural elements like doors, chairs, stools, and cabinets likely as a proposal for a room's furnishings and layout. Such preparatory sketches were essential tools for architects, designers, and craftsmen during Germany's Biedermeier and Gründerzeit periods, comfort, functionality, and ornate detail defined middle-class homes amid rapid industrialization. Rendered in pen an...