Ontwerp voor een jardinière, twee losse figuren en twee schelpvormige vaten c. 1864 - 1894

This drawing by Henri Cameré sketches out a design for a jardinière and other decorative vessels. The medium is humble: graphite on paper. Yet, the envisioned final products are anything but. Cameré renders the main vessel as being supported by straining human figures; the other suggested forms evoke shells, symbols of luxury. The technique here is suggestive: quickly-drawn lines, multiple takes on the same form, all communicating a dynamic sense of possibility. The question is, possibility for whom? Objects like these would have been fabricated in series, likely in porcelain or a precious metal. They would have taken many hours of skilled labor to produce. The end result would have been available only to the wealthy. So, in a sense, the casual nature of this drawing belies a whole pyramid of production, and social hierarchy. This is a reminder that even the most seemingly-innocent sketch has its place in a much larger economic picture.