The first major exhibition catalogue to focus on Jacques Louis David's drawings and their pivotal role in the creation of his iconic history paintings The paintings of Jacques Louis David (1748–1825) are among the most iconic in the history of Western art, but comparatively little is known about his nearly two thousand drawings that formed the basis of beloved masterpieces such as The Oath of the Horatii and The Death of Socrates. Jacques Louis David: Radical Draftsman accompanies the first major exhibition to focus on the artist's often yearslong process of trial and experimentation, from initial idea to finished canvas. Including several recently discovered drawings published here for the first time, this volume provides a new perspective on the celebrated master. Essays by international experts explore what David's preparatory works on paper reveal about his creative process and how they bear witness to the tumultuous years before, during, and after the French Revolution. As both a participant and an observer, David helped establish the new French society while documenting the drama, violence, and triumphs of modern history in the making.

Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933) was one of America's preeminent masters of the decorative arts. Although he is best known for his prodigious achievements in glass, especially for his vibrantly colored windows and lamps, Tiffany excelled in a wide range of media—mosaics, enamels, metalwork, ceramics, and jewelry—all handsomely represented in this publication by pieces from the Metropolitan Museum's outstanding collection of Tiffany works. Son of the founder of the famed Tiffany and Company on Fifth Avenue in New York City, Louis Comfort Tiffany began his career as a painter shortly after the Civil War. Turning to interior design, he rode the crest of the burgeoning economy in the aftermath of the war, decorating homes of some of the leading figures of the day—the H. O. Havemeyers, Hamilton Fish, and Mark Twain—and undertaking such public commissions as Chester Arthur's White House and the Veterans' Room of the Seventh Regiment Armory in New York City. In the 1870s he began to experiment with new forms of glassmaking, and by the 1880s the Tiffany Glass Company was the largest producer of stained-glass windows in the nation. In the next decade Tiffany established his own glass furnaces in Corona, Queens, New York, where he developed and perfected his Favrile ware, widely celebrated for its astonishing variety of shapes, colors, and textures and for its rainbow iridescence. New techniques were introduced continuously as Tiffany drew upon his own inexhaustible creativity, perfectionism, and unconventionalism to produce works that are now treasured for their grace and originality. In 1901 Tiffany acknowledged that "an important part of the work of the studios is the artistic treatment of artificial light." From the beginning of his career as a designer he had shown an interest in controlling natural and artificial light, and especially in the use of glass for diffusing it. During the 1880s he worked with Thomas Edison on the first theater to install electric lights. Tiffany's leaded-glass shades with floral motifs combined soft illumination with delicate artistry and are among the most prized of all Tiffany creations. His work in glass led to the development of beautiful iridescent mosaics, and he created shimmering golden surfaces for enamels. Tiffany was also an innovator in jewelry design, for which he preferred semi-precious stones, often in ingenious settings, to the more fashionable large gems favored by Tiffany and Company. Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen, curator of American decorative arts at the Metropolitan Museum, presents Tiffany's works in the context of his career, discusses his artistic themes and his devotion to nature, and sheds new light on his technical virtuosity. She has illustrated her text with many of Tiffany's watercolor presentation drawings selected from the more than 400 in the Museum's collections. Many of these drawings, made by Tiffany and his artists over a period of forty years, are reproduced here for the first time.

Laurelton Hall, Louis Comfort Tiffany's extraordinary country estate in Oyster Bay, New York, represents the height of his artistic endeavors. Tiffany (1848–1933) built Laurelton between 1902 and 1905, carefully controlling every aspect of the estate's design, from the architecture and interiors of the main house to the gardens, fountains, pools, and numerous outbuildings on the grounds. He filled the house with hundreds of his best glass vases, pottery, and enamelware, installed many of his most significant leaded-glass windows, and displayed objects from his personal collections of Islamic, Asian, and Native American art. Bedazzled visitors called the estate "an Arabian Nights' dream." Tiffany's grand country estate became an educational enterprise in 1918. When he established a residency program that brought young artists to Laurelton Hall, not to receive any formal instruction but to be inspired by the estate's setting, vistas, interiors, and works of art. The program continued after Tiffany's death, but the costs of maintaining Laurelton were such that in 1946 the contents of the house were put up for auction, and in 1949 the house and acreage were sold. In 1957 Laurelton was destroyed in a fire. This volume, which accompanies a major exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, examines Laurelton Hall in all its aspects. The authors trace innovations and precedents in Tiffany's designs for his earlier residences and re-create in detail Laurelton's architecture and interiors, Tiffany's "museum" of his own work, and the passion he shared with many of his contemporaries for collecting Asian and Native American art. Surviving artworks and salvaged architectural components from Laurelton are illustrated in magnificent, newly commissioned color photography. The book offers an unprecedented portrait of the unique and marvelous place that was Laurelton Hall—a place where visitors stepped into and inhabited a work of art.

Associate Conservator Marina Ruiz Molina takes viewers beneath the surface of Louis Comfort Tiffany drawings in an investigation of his studios' practices.

What was it like to visit one of the most magnificent courts of Europe? Based on a wealth of contemporary documents and surviving works of art, this lavish book explores the experiences of those who swarmed the palace and grounds of Versailles when it was the seat of the French monarchy. Engaging essays describe methods of transportation, the elaborate codes of dress and etiquette, precious diplomatic gifts, royal audiences, and tours of the palace and gardens. Also presented are the many types of visitors and guests who eagerly made their way to this center of power and culture, including day-trippers and Grand Tourists, European diplomats, overseas ambassadors, incognito travelers, and Americans. Through paintings and portraits, furniture, costumes and uniforms, arms and armor, guidebooks, and other works of art, Visitors to Versailles illuminates what travelers encountered at court and what impressions, gifts, and souvenirs they took home with them. In bringing to life their experiences, this sumptuously illustrated volume reminds us why Versailles has enchanted generations of visitors from the ancien régime to the present day.

Three scholars from across The Met work together to see beneath a Louis C. Tiffany drawing.

Curator Keith Christiansen highlights the aspects of Valentin de Boulogne's work that Neoclassical painter Jacques Louis David included in his own pictures.