Brackets, Caryatids and other Architectural Details (recto and verso)

Gilles-Marie Oppenord

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gilles-Marie Oppenord was the son of the cabinet maker Jean-Alexandre Oppenord who, during the latter part of his career, worked at the Louvre in the service of the French king as ‘Ébeniste du Roi’. After his first training, Gilles-Marie spent seven years in Italy where he studied the Baroque monuments built by his contemporaries and the great masters of previous generations. Collecting thoughts and inspiration on paper would prove to be a life-long exercise for him. Although not many of his executed buildings and interiors survive today, many drawings can be attributed to his hand. On this sheet he seems to have specifically collected architectural elements with a supporting function. Although the arrangement of the motifs on the sheet seems somewhat chaotic, the drawing has a very strong overall appeal. The publisher Gabriel Huquier (French, Orléans 1695–1772 Paris) must have recognized this appeal since he adopted the lay-out of this sheet (or left it unaltered) in several print series in the published ‘Oeuvre’ containing Oppenord’s designs for ornament and the interior.

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.