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Object Timeline
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Drawing, View of Masquerade Ball
This is a Drawing. It was created by Jean-Charles Delafosse. It is dated 1770–80 and we acquired it in 1911. Its medium is pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, watercolor, black chalk on white laid paper . It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.
Dancers in outrageous costumes and masks mingle in a lavish interior. This drawing likely depicts a Parisian vauxhall, which were public entertainment spaces that became fashionable in France in the late 1760s, that played host to art exhibitions, concerts, balls, and other public spectacles until the late 1770s. Iconic characters of the commedia dell’arte such as the hunchback Punchinello and the Pierrot dance amongst the crowd while on one side, a group of people are dressed as yew trees, likely referencing the Yew Tree Ball held at Versailles on 25 February 1745, where Louis XV came disguised as a yew tree. Delafosse may have modeled the costumes after designs by Louis-René Boquet or other costume designers working for the Menus plaisirs du roi or for the Académie royale de musique. The grandiose interior is in fact a capriccio, an imaginary or fantastical space overflowing with Jean-Charles Delafosse’s exuberant decorations in the Greek style, an early form of neoclassicism that emerged in the 1760s. Such highly finished drawings were likely owned by a collector interested in the licentious spectacles at Parisian vauxhalls.
This object was featured in our Object of the Week series in a post titled Let's Dance! .
This object was
donated by
Advisory Council.
It is credited Purchased for the Museum by the Advisory Council.
- Drawing, View of a Masquerade Ball
- pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, watercolor on laid paper.
- Purchased for the Museum by the Advisory Council.
- 1911-28-39
- Drawing, Design for a Decorative Ewer
- pen and black ink, brush and gray wash on paper.
- Purchased for the Museum by the Advisory Council.
- 1911-28-49
![Poster, 1960/61 Stadttheater Basel [Poster for the 1960-61 Season of the City Theater, Basel]](https://images.collection.cooperhewitt.org/357790_df97639d74565ca1_n.jpg "Poster, 1960/61 Stadttheater Basel [Poster for the 1960-61 Season of the City Theater, Basel]")
- Poster, 1960/61 Stadttheater Basel [Poster for the 1960-61 Season of the City...
- offset lithograph on white wove paper.
- Gift of Ken Friedman.
- 1997-19-148
Our curators have highlighted 4 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:
- Poster, A Holiday Big Broadcast
- lithograph on white wove paper.
- Gift of Art Chantry.
- 1995-69-44
- Poster, Do Women Have to be Naked to Get into the Met. Museum?
- photo-offset lithograph on paper.
- Gift of Sara and Marc Benda.
- 2009-20-2
- Sidewall (France)
- machine-printed paper.
- Gift of Harvey Smith.
- 1950-83-1
Its dimensions are
30.8 × 40.1 cm (12 1/8 × 15 13/16 in.) Mat: 40.6 × 55.9 cm (16 × 22 in.)
It has the following markings
Strasburg lily with pendant A (RB '45)
It is inscribed
Inscribed in pen and brown ink, lower left: J. ch. Delafosse.
Cite this object as
Drawing, View of Masquerade Ball; Jean-Charles Delafosse (French, 1734–1791); France; pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, watercolor, black chalk on white laid paper ; 30.8 × 40.1 cm (12 1/8 × 15 13/16 in.) Mat: 40.6 × 55.9 cm (16 × 22 in.) ; Purchased for the Museum by the Advisory Council; 1911-28-38
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibitions Hewitt Sisters Collect and The Cooper-Hewitt Collections: A Design Resource.
