Page from a Scrapbook containing Drawings and Several Prints of Architecture, Interiors, Furniture and Other Objects 1795 - 1805

Curator: Looking at this page from a scrapbook by Charles Percier, dating back to around 1795-1805, I see snippets of architectural drawings and prints. My first reaction is a feeling of incompleteness and isolation—those drawings feel marooned. Editor: Absolutely, there's an almost clinical sparseness, isn't there? I’m drawn to the paper itself: its texture, the way it’s aged. These aren't pristine museum walls; it's a working surface. I’m thinking about where Percier sourced his materials. Was it expensive laid paper? How would its quality shape who consumed the works, and the context it provided? Curator: Good point. It's Neoclassical, which favored order. But juxtapose that order with the scrapbook format – fragmented and personal. Does that tension create something more meaningful than pure Neoclassicism could offer? Editor: Yes. The very act of pasting architectural plans into a book underscores that tension you're feeling, making me wonder about the cultural implications of consuming fine art through print culture. We’re no longer talking just about elites who would commission a building designed by Percier, are we? Now his plans, prints, drawings are material objects being produced for a whole new market! Curator: Indeed. It highlights that crucial point that neoclassical design influenced the private, domestic sphere and not just grand public works. Editor: Precisely. What can this fragment tell us about artistic labor at that time? I wonder who made these drawings, who reproduced them. The scrapbook is more than just images; it reveals connections, process, consumption. Curator: So the value isn't just in Percier's design, but in the ecosystem of materials, labor, and markets it reveals. Perhaps incompleteness is its strength, hinting at the bigger picture! Editor: Exactly! From material fragments, a glimpse of art as work. Now, that’s a concept to think about.