Sheet with hanging draperies, festoons, and birds 1775 - 1875

This small sheet, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, features watercolor and ink on paper, and was made by an anonymous artist. The delicate, almost faded quality of the watercolor gives this fragment its unique character. The artist has employed traditional techniques of drawing and painting, but to a somewhat unusual end, because the subject is drapery. The festoons, flowers, and birds create a lively, decorative scene. But what was this sheet *for*? Given its relatively small size, it could have been a preparatory study, a design sample, or even a component of a larger decorative scheme. The pentagonal shape suggests it was made for a particular architectural setting, perhaps for a specific room. By considering the making of this drawing – the skilled handiwork, the application of pigment to paper – we begin to sense its original purpose, and its relationship to the wider world of decoration and design.