Wagonette Break #4201
1893
Medium
Pen and black ink, watercolor and gouache with gum arabic
Dimensions
sheet: 6 1/16 x 9 1/2 in. (15.4 x 24.2 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of William Brewster, 1923
Accession Number
23.112.483
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate 1893 drawing captures a Wagonette Break, model #4201, produced by Brewster & Co., America’s leading carriage manufacturer during the Gilded Age. Founded in New York in 1856, Brewster supplied elegant vehicles to prominent families and helped shape the nation’s taste for refined coachwork. The sheet likely served as a presentation drawing or design record, showcasing the vehicle’s graceful lines, seating arrangement, and sporting character for prospective clients. Executed in pen and black ink with watercolor and gouache heightened by gum arabic, the work demonstrates the precisi...
About the Artist
Brewster & Co.
**Brewster & Co.** Brewster & Company, a premier American coachbuilder renowned for its exquisite carriage designs, was established in 1810 in New Haven, Connecticut, by James Brewster (1788–1866). Born in 1788, Brewster trained as a wagonmaker's apprentice starting at age 16 in Northampton, Massachusetts, before relocating to New Haven, where he set up his workshop and quickly gained acclaim for...