19th Century FRENCH SCHOOL

 

Design for an Entrance Gate for a French Embassy Building

Pen and black ink, with brown wash and two shades of blue wash.
Laid down.
631 x 831 mm. (24 7/8 x 32 3/4 in.)
This very large sheet depicts a design for a monumental entrance to a French embassy building, with an ornamental vocabulary characteristic of the period of the Second Empire. (The wrought-iron gates are decorated with laurel wreaths within which are the initials E and F, for Empire Français.) This second period of Empire, replacing the French Second Republic, was established in 1852 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, who proclaimed himself Emperor of the French as Napoleon III. A period during which France re-established its power in Europe, the Second Empire ended with the Franco-Prussian War and the death of Napoleon III in 1870, and was succeeded by the Third French Republic.

19th Century FRENCH SCHOOL

Design for an Entrance Gate for a French Embassy Building