Sketches for Details of a Dress and Other Accessories

Anonymous, French, 18th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Page with five sketches. On the top left there is a graphite and ink sketch of the lower rim of a curtain or dress with flowers and long tassels. To the right there is a graphite sketch for a corseted bodice and sash. Below these two sketches is a more finished rendering of a pink plume of either hair or feathers held together by a green bow done in ink and watercolor. Towards the right side of the sheet a ruffled pin cushion and a bow with tassels and feathers are portrayed.

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