Trophy with Musical Instruments

Description

Huet, along with his better-known nephew Jean-Baptiste Huet, built his reputation as an animal painter in the tradition of François Desportes. However, Huet also decorated many of the chateaux and hotels in and around Paris for important clients, including Madame de Pompadour. This drawing might well have become part of the decorative scheme in a music room or other interior. One of two such designs in the Museum’s collections, this drawing combines a variety of musical instruments, sheet music, and plants surmounted by a magnificent curling bow. Such designs have a lively delicacy and fineness of touch that perfectly complemented interiors decorated in the style of Louis XV and which often found their way into engravings.
Exhibition label copy from "Eighteenth Century French Prints and Drawings," February 1 - May 4, 2003 by Curator Carole McNamara