Antoine de Chézy

Louis Jean Desprez

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The subject of the print, Antoine de Chézy (1718-1798) was a French hydraulics engineer, made director of the École nationale des ponts et chaussées shortly before his death in 1798. It is among the earlier works of Desprez, one of the 18th century's most original and accomplished printmakers. Although the oval format is conventional, the technique is distinguished by Desprez's elegant line, at once wobbly and self-assured.

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