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The Tomb of Agamemnon

ca. 1787
Not on view
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

Object Information
  • 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

More Artwork

More Artwork
Tomb with Death Enthroned as a Sphinx, Louis Jean Desprez French, Etching and aquatint, printed in brown ink, ii/ii
Tomb with Death Enthroned as a Sphinx
Louis Jean Desprez
ca. 1779–84
Guitar, Jean-Baptiste Voboam French, Spruce, tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, ivory, ebony, French
Guitar
attributed to Jean-Baptiste Voboam
1697
Souvenir of a Castle in Vosges, Victor Hugo French, Brush and iron gall washes, pen and iron gall ink, white gouache; outline of castle obtained by using a paper stencil
Souvenir of a Castle in Vosges
Victor Hugo
1857
Louis Jean Desprez French, Brush and brown wash over etching
A view of the Tomb of Mamia, in Pompeii
Louis Jean Desprez
etching by Francesco Piranesi
n.d.
Ceramic Horn, Glazed pottery, French
Ceramic Horn
French
late 18th or early 19th century

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