Portrait of Louis-Philippe, Duc d'Orleans and His Son Louis-Phillipe Joseph, Duc de Chartres

Louis de Carmontelle

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Born into the lower classes, Carmontelle served as aide-de-camp and topographer to the Orléans regiment during the Seven Years War, when his caricatures gained him considerable popularity. After the war he was employed by the Orléans household in various capacities, including reader to the young duc de Chartres. Carmontelle is best known today for the portraits of society figures he made during this period. He produced only six prints; the present composition is his most ambitious.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art