Four Designs of Costume Accessories

Four Designs of Costume Accessories

Anonymous, French, 18th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Page with four sketches of costume accessories including two hats, a ruffled fichu, and a bouffant skirt with a sash. The first sketch on the left is a graphite and ink drawing of a woman's face in profile wearing a top hat with a neck strap. It is decorated with flowers, leaves, and bows.The second sketch is of a woman's head with a wide brimmed straw hat curving upwards at the sides. It is decorated with a ribbon and a flower. The ink and graphite sketch below is of a ruffled and trimmed fichu. The final sketch to the right is in graphite, ink, and gouache. It is of a bouffant skirt with a decorative blue sash with flowers and fringe at the bottom.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Four Designs of Costume AccessoriesFour Designs of Costume AccessoriesFour Designs of Costume AccessoriesFour Designs of Costume AccessoriesFour Designs of Costume Accessories

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.