The Tomb of Agamemnon
Trained as an architect, the French artist Desprez was appointed by King Gustav III of Sweden in 1784 as the head stage designer for the Royal Opera in Stockholm. This drawing relates to the sets Desprez made for the Swedish opera Electra, which premiered at Drottningholm Castle on July 22, 1787. The scene of Agamemnon’s interment is in the prologue, which opens with Electra and Orestes plotting to avenge their father’s murder. Desprez’s rendering is cloaked in gloom, with torches and censers dramatically lighting the architecture from below.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Tomb of Agamemnon
- Artist: Louis Jean Desprez (French, Auxerre 1743–1804 Stockholm)
- Date: ca. 1787
- Medium: Pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, heightened with white gouache
- Dimensions: 29 3/4 x 36 in. (75.6 x 91.4 cm)
- Classification: Drawings
- Credit Line: Purchase, Gifts from Mrs. Gardner Cassatt, Mrs. Francis Ormond, Bessie Potter Vonnoh, William Benton, Donald Silve, William M. Ivins Jr., and Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney, and other gifts, bequests, and funds, by exchange, 1998
- Object Number: 1998.187
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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