Elevation of a Royal Bedroom
Anonymous, French, 17th century French
Formerly attributed to Jean Le Pautre French
Not on view
Jean Lepautre was the older brother of the architect Antoine Le Pautre. He is mainly known for his enormous production of prints of which a large part contains designs for architecture, the interior and ornament, often based on his own designs. He devoted 10 series, comprising a total of 71 prints to designs for bedrooms, some of which contain narrative scenes while others are purely focused on the aspect of design. This drawing relates to the series ‘Alcoves à l’Italiene’ [sic] (Alcoves in the Italian manner) which was published by Pierre II Mariette around 1656-1657. It shows an elegant canopy bed, supported by caryatids and is crowned by a fleur-de-lis. This emblem of the French monarchy is used as a theme throughout the interior returning in the crown surmounting the alcove, the woodwork of the balustrade, the wallpaper and the draperies.