Wall Elevation for a Salon

Jean Démosthène Dugourc

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In this drawing and the inscription below, Jean Démosthène Dugourc reveals something of the working practice of a designer. He presents us with a wall elevation, characterized by its large mirror, and dresses it with furniture to which he refers rather simply as ‘table no. 4’ and ‘two no. 5 columns’. These instructions were meant for the people in his atelier, to let them know what type of pieces to execute and bring together in the planned interior. Notwithstanding the elegance of this design, this seems to indicate that it was probably made for the lower end of Dugourc’s clientele. This assumption has to be considered however, in relation to the elite group of patrons that he worked for during his successful career. Given the fact that he was in the service of several European monarchs, including the French kings Louis XVI and XVIII, Catherine the Great of Russia and Charles IV of Spain, it is safe to conclude that this Salon would have adorned the house of a prominent member of the aristocracy.

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