Plate from Ornament Designs Invented by J. Berain (page 71)

Jean Berain

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Berain's work was very influential and was adopted for the decoration of Boulle marquetry, tapestries, and other textiles, as well as faience. Berain, who was named chief designer to the French court in 1690, was given lodgings in the Louvre near those of his son-in-law, the clockmaker Jacques Thuret, and the cabinetmaker André-Charles Boulle.

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