Allegory of Louis XV as Patron of the Arts with Paintings and Sculpture from the Salon of 1769

Allegory of Louis XV as Patron of the Arts with Paintings and Sculpture from the Salon of 1769

Gabriel de Saint-Aubin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ironically, it was Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, whose aspirations to become a member of the Académie Royale were never realized, who provided posterity with visual records of the biennial Salons held in the Palais du Louvre to showcase new work by its members. His drawings of the Salons ranged from fully realized views of the exhibitions with visitors to thumbnail sketches of individual works made in the margins of the accompanying brochures. This work is a hybrid, in which sketches of paintings and sculptures on view in the Salon of 1769 were initially drawn in chalk in bands across the sheet, then later worked up in oil paint, and finally embellished with allegorical figures of the arts descending upon clouds to honor King Louis XV as a great patron, presenting his portrait to the viewer. Perrin Stein, March 2015

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Allegory of Louis XV as Patron of the Arts with Paintings and Sculpture from the Salon of 1769Allegory of Louis XV as Patron of the Arts with Paintings and Sculpture from the Salon of 1769Allegory of Louis XV as Patron of the Arts with Paintings and Sculpture from the Salon of 1769Allegory of Louis XV as Patron of the Arts with Paintings and Sculpture from the Salon of 1769Allegory of Louis XV as Patron of the Arts with Paintings and Sculpture from the Salon of 1769

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.