Design for a Medal Commemorating the Treaty of Paris, 1814

Design for a Medal Commemorating the Treaty of Paris, 1814

Jacques Edouard Gatteaux

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is one of the few surviving drawings by Gatteaux, an engraver of medals. His delicate use of line and wash recalls the technique of his lifelong friend Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. The design commemorates the Treaty of Paris of 1814, signed by the French king Louis XVIII and other European leaders following the abdication and exile of Emperor Napoleon I.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Design for a Medal Commemorating the Treaty of Paris, 1814Design for a Medal Commemorating the Treaty of Paris, 1814Design for a Medal Commemorating the Treaty of Paris, 1814Design for a Medal Commemorating the Treaty of Paris, 1814Design for a Medal Commemorating the Treaty of Paris, 1814

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.