Designs for Overmantles
18th century
Medium
Pen and brown ink, brush and gray wash, graphite.
Dimensions
sheet: 10 13/16 x 7 9/16 in. (27.4 x 19.2 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1966
Accession Number
66.551.21
Tags
Art Historical Context
Welcome to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, where we showcase the intricate world of 18th-century design. *Designs for Overmant*, created by an anonymous French artist around this elegant era, presents architectural proposals for overmantles—those ornate panels crowning fireplaces in grand salons and chateaus. Measuring a modest 10 13/16 x 7 9/16 inches, this sheet captures the opulent spirit of the time, likely influenced by the Rococo style's love for graceful curves, shell motifs, and playful asymmetry that defined Louis XV interiors. Crafted with pen and br...
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...