Design for a Pulpit

Louis Gustave Taraval

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Together with a second drawing in the collection, this drawing by Taraval shows ideas for the design of a pulpit. While they could represent an exercise, created without a specific location in mind, there is some evidence to suggest that they were, in fact, meant for the church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. The church’s existing pulpit was built during Taraval’s lifetime after the design of his contemporary, the architect Charles de Wailly. The close correspondence between the sculpture crowning this structure and the two variants presented in Taraval’s drawings may indicate that Taraval had hoped to gain the commission himself. This suspicion seems to be confirmed by a related design by Taraval for the organ tribune in the same church.

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