Rocaille Cartouche
mid-18th century
Medium
gray wash with pen and brown ink on laid paper
Dimensions
sheet: 28.5 × 44.1 cm (11 1/4 × 17 3/8 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Katharine Shepard Fund
Accession Number
2018.57.2
Art Historical Context
Pierre-Edme Babel’s Rocaille Cartouche captures the playful elegance of mid-eighteenth-century French design. Created around 1750, the drawing exemplifies the Rococo taste for asymmetry, scrolling forms, and shell-like motifs—elements that gave the period its name, derived from the French word “rocaille.” As an ornamental designer and engraver, Babel specialized in such decorative studies, which often served as models for prints, furniture mounts, or architectural details. Executed in pen and brown ink with delicate gray washes on laid paper, the sheet reveals Babel’s fluid line work and subt...
About the Artist
Pierre-Edme Babel ( |French| | |French) · 1737 |1725 |1689 |1748 |1725 –1818 |1825 |1789 |1839 |1825
1737–1818| |died 1789|1748–?1839, master 1773, retired 1786|