Architecture

About the Artwork

Marie Bracquemond was among a few women artists within the Impressionist circle. After exhibiting at the Salon from a relatively young age, she married the printmaker Félix Bracquemond and met artists such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas through his friendship with them. This drawing is one of several compositions related to Muses of the Arts, one of Bracquemond’s best known works, featuring personifications of various artforms—such as, here, architecture. The completed work was featured in the Exposition Universelle in 1878, while the related drawings, possibly including this one, were singled out for praise in the 1879 Impressionist group exhibition.

Provenance

1916: Studio of the artist [1840–1916], Sèvres, by descent, until 1916 1916: Pierre Bracquemond [1870–1926], Paris, probably 1916 1916: (sold to Galerie Sagot-Le Garrec, Paris), probably 1916 1916–17: Edmond Sagot [1857–1917], Paris, by descent, probably 1916-1917 1917–2023: Sagot family collection, Paris, by descent, 1917-2023 2023: (sold to Bernard Derroitte, Chicago, IL), 2023 December 4, 2023–: (sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH), 2023-

Quick Overview

Artist: Marie Bracquemond (French, 1840–1916)
Date: 1878
Medium: black chalk on pale pink wove paper
Dimensions: Matted: 55.9 x 43 cm (22 x 16 15/16 in.); Sheet: 38.3 x 26.1 cm (15 1/16 x 10 1/4 in.)
Type: Drawing
Classification: Drawing
Department: Drawings
Credit line: The Jane B. Tripp Charitable Lead Annuity Trust
Accession no.: 2023.165

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.