Piece 1815 - 1825

Editor: So, this is "Piece" by Louis-Henri Brevière, created sometime between 1815 and 1825. It's currently housed here at the Met. From what I understand, it combines printmaking techniques like etching and engraving. My first thought is that this feels like looking into someone's imaginative tapestry from another era. The whole scene seems layered with so much narrative, I don’t know where to start unpacking it. How do you interpret this work? Curator: Tapestry indeed! It's not paint, nor quite illustration; this “Piece” is brimming with that fabulous 19th-century fascination with the “Orient,” as they called it. It's like someone dreamed of Persia while surrounded by French wallpaper, wouldn't you say? What strikes me is that it seems less interested in reality, and more in constructing a world that reflects an idea. The figures and architectural motifs seem somewhat floating freely rather than coherently aligned within any landscape. Notice that distinctive crosshatching used throughout; isn’t that clever for creating visual texture and depth? Editor: Yes! And the detail is so intricate, particularly in the rendering of figures and animals. It almost feels like an early form of photo collage. I can easily visualize this decorating a wealthy home in the 1800s. Given the detail, the pattern reminds me a lot of wallpaper as well. What would people use this for at the time? Curator: Likely to decorate, show wealth and a wide understanding of different countries around the globe! If you were to have such a luxurious piece hung, what stories do you suppose you would tell? Perhaps even begin to imagine *being* in the artwork yourself? That man in the center on his tall stallion! Off to the races in my own little mind, he is! Editor: That’s a lovely way to put it – daydreaming within art. It makes me consider art's unique ability to evoke emotions from such different places and times. Curator: Precisely! "Daydreaming within art". That’s a frame of mind that shall sit nicely with me. Thank you!