Table Design 1800 - 1900

This small drawing of a table design on paper is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s difficult to say exactly when or where it was made, but the delicate Neoclassical style would place it somewhere in Europe during the late 18th century. It presents some interesting questions about the place of art and design within a culture. Was this design intended for production? Or was it merely a speculative exercise, a demonstration of the artist’s skill and imagination? Its current location, within the collection of a museum, affects how we see it. It asks us to consider it as art, rather than design. Looking at this image, one might consider the role of the decorative arts within the aristocratic culture of 18th-century Europe. A historian might research the kinds of workshops or institutions in which this drawing might have been produced, and the social status of its maker, as well as the social function of furniture like this. The meaning of art is always contingent on social context.