Drawing After an Antique Tabouret 19th century

This is an anonymous drawing after an antique tabouret, an upholstered stool, rendered in pen and brown ink on paper. While seemingly a simple study, it opens a window into the world of antique collecting and the revival of classical forms which gained momentum in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The stool, with its draped fabric, classical busts, and ornate legs, speaks to the influence of antiquity on design and taste. It makes me think about who had access to these historical objects, and who was involved in their circulation and study. What did the classical style represent to them? The act of copying or drawing after an antique object was a way to engage with the past, to understand and perhaps even to emulate its aesthetic values. But this also raises questions about authenticity, originality, and the politics of representation. What gets preserved, and whose stories are told through these objects? Consider the identities of those who were excluded from this classical revival, whose labor and lives might have enabled its very existence.