Design for a Tapestry Seat of a Sofa

Charles Antoine Coypel

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The painter Charles Antoine Coypel was also a noteworthy designer for the famous Gobelins tapestry manufactory in Paris. His most successful tapestry series illustrates the story of Don Quixote, based on the seventeenth-century novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Conceived in 1714, the series remained in production until 1794. This design for the seat of a sofa dates from 1721 and depicts Don Quixote’s mistress in a detail taken from a larger tapestry composition. According to the inscription, the design was conceived for "Madame la Regente," most likely referring to Françoise Marie de Bourbon, the spouse of Prince Regent Philippe d’Orléans. The sofa was probably part of a full set for a salon, but none of the other designs by Coypel survive.

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