Page from a Scrapbook containing Drawings and Several Prints of Architecture, Interiors, Furniture and Other Objects 1795 - 1805

Charles Percier created this page from a scrapbook containing drawings and several prints using pen and brown ink and graphite. This collection of prints and drawings gives insight into the visual culture of early 19th-century France. Percier's designs, with their neoclassical motifs, speak to the era's fascination with antiquity, a style promoted through institutions like the École des Beaux-Arts. These drawings weren't just aesthetic exercises; they were part of a larger movement to redefine French taste and craftsmanship after the Revolution. Percier, along with his collaborator Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine, played a pivotal role in shaping the Empire style, influencing everything from furniture design to interior decoration. To understand this scrapbook fully, one might delve into archives documenting the decorative arts and the patronage networks that sustained artists like Percier. The historian's task is to uncover the social and economic forces that shaped these designs.