Watch with portrait of Friedrick Wilhelm, the Great Elector

Watch with portrait of Friedrick Wilhelm, the Great Elector

Johann G. Racine

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The miniature is a portrait of Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia (1620–1688), who was known as the Great Elector. It was painted by the Swiss-born enamelist Jean-Pierre Huaud, who worked for a time at the court of the Elector in Berlin. Johann Racine, a watchmaker from Basel, evidently made a new movement for a treasured watchcase.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Watch with portrait of Friedrick Wilhelm, the Great ElectorWatch with portrait of Friedrick Wilhelm, the Great ElectorWatch with portrait of Friedrick Wilhelm, the Great ElectorWatch with portrait of Friedrick Wilhelm, the Great ElectorWatch with portrait of Friedrick Wilhelm, the Great Elector

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.