Designs for Ceiling 19th century

This ceiling design was sketched by Charles Monblond sometime in the 1800s, likely in preparation for a commission in a wealthy home. It is rendered in graphite, a relatively unforgiving material: each line had to be just right. The design itself has a definite sense of luxury. Note the cherubs and the filigree, the kind of decoration that would have been painstakingly realized by skilled laborers. Plasterers, gilders, and painters would have had to translate this drawing into three dimensions, and full color. Consider the social context of this kind of design. It speaks to the concentration of wealth in the 19th century, and the way that fine craftsmanship was lavished on private residences, a powerful contrast to the bare conditions in which many people lived and worked at the time. By looking at this design, we can reflect on the entire system of production that brought such rarefied beauty into being.