Vignette from the Galerie des Glaces, Versailles

Vignette from the Galerie des Glaces, Versailles

Bernard Picart

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bernard Picart was a successful engraver active in France and the Netherlands. This drawing belongs to a group of studies he made after works by Charles Le Brun, the leading painter and coordinator of royal projects under Louis XIV. Rather than transcribe an entire composition, he used each sheet to study a vignette of a few figures.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vignette from the Galerie des Glaces, VersaillesVignette from the Galerie des Glaces, VersaillesVignette from the Galerie des Glaces, VersaillesVignette from the Galerie des Glaces, VersaillesVignette from the Galerie des Glaces, Versailles

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.