Designs for the ceiling and wall of a room decorated with waterbirds and flowering vines

Art Historical Context

This delicate design captures the refined elegance of 19th-century French interior decoration. Created by Jules-Edmond-Charles Lachaise and Eugène-Pierre Gourdet between 1830 and 1897, the drawing proposes a harmonious scheme for a room’s ceiling and walls, featuring graceful waterbirds amid flowing vines and blossoms. The composition reflects the period’s fascination with naturalistic motifs drawn from gardens and wetlands, transforming everyday nature into an immersive decorative environment. Executed in pen and ink with watercolor on layered wove and laid papers, the work demonstrates the artists’ careful attention to both line and color. Such presentation drawings were essential tools for conveying how painted ornament would appear in three dimensions, allowing patrons to envision the finished space. The sheet’s mounting on blue paper further suggests it was prepared for review or archival purposes. Today housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Drawings and Prints, this design offers a vivid glimpse into collaborative artistic practice and the enduring appeal of avian and floral themes in domestic settings.

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...