Design for a Chair Back Cover with an Oval-Shaped Ornamental Frame with a Kneeling Woman and a Playful Putto Surrounded by Garlands of Leaves and Flowers and Scrolling Acanthus Leaves Inside a Larger Ornamental Frame

Rectangular sheet of paper with a design for a chair back cover from the second half of the nineteenth century, inspired on the style of Louis XVI, forming part of the Neo-Classical Revival that took place in France and Britain from the 1850s on. The style was part of the Classical and Renaissance Revival that took place from about 1850, where the interest on the art and architecture from Ancient Rome and the 15th and 16th centuries was propelled by archaeological discoveries in Greece, Italy and Egypt. Through this style, Classical and Renaissance pieces of art and design were reinterpreted in a variety of forms and motifs, and classical figures, scrolling decorations, strapwork, and grotesques and moresques, became central element in design. This Revival was characterized by the use of design motifs that alluded to Classical Antiquity, including vases and trophies with pastoral attributes, classical figures and cameos, a mixture of real and fantastic figures, and swags and festoons. These swags and festoons comprised garlands of fabric and ribbon, as well as thin bundles and garlands of flowers and husks colored with pastels. The scale of this design is clearly not true to life and it is not unlikely that this drawing was made for a sample book of an upholsterer, to be shown to the customer as one of many different styles to choose from.
This design is made up of an oval-shaped ornamental frame rendered with shades of yellow to simulate a golden finish with a blue background and a kneeling woman, her lower body partly covered by a textile that flows above her back and head, being teased by a playful winged putto, both colored with a lighter shade of blue. Surrounded by garlands of green leaves and flowers colored with yellow, orange and shades of pink, as well as scrolling acanthus leaves colored with shades of pink and purple, the oval-shaped frame hangs from a larger, thinner ornamental frame, with square edges, that follows the shape of the chair back. This larger frame is also rendered to simulate a golden finish; the background is colored with cream on the inside of the frame, and with light gray on the outside.
The design is placed on the same paper as a similar chair seat cover (49.50.184(b)), possibly meant to be part of the same chair as this.