Cross Section of the Hôtel de Ville Seen in Perspective Showing the Decoration and Illumination of the Courtyard and Rooms Created on the Occasion of the Ball Given the Night of August 30 and 31, 1739

Cross Section of the Hôtel de Ville Seen in Perspective Showing the Decoration and Illumination of the Courtyard and Rooms Created on the Occasion of the Ball Given the Night of August 30 and 31, 1739 (1739–1740) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jacques-François Blondel (French, 1705–1744).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This cross-section of a building allows a unique view into a French royal wedding. The partiers are dressed in costume and dance in the Parisian town hall. No expense was spared in the lavish celebration, from flowers to drinks to the elaborate false ceiling painted to look like the sky.

Object facts

• Title: Cross Section of the Hôtel de Ville Seen in Perspective Showing the Decoration and Illumination of the Courtyard and Rooms Created on the Occasion of the Ball Given the Night of August 30 and 31, 1739
• Date: 1739–1740
• Creator attribution: Jacques-François Blondel (French, 1705–1744)
• Culture: France
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, and watercolor with gouache, over graphite
• Dimensions: Sheet: 42.9 x 69.5 cm (16 7/8 x 27 3/8 in.); Secondary Support: 53.9 x 89.6 cm (21 1/4 x 35 1/4 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2008.408

Collection credit

Bequest of Muriel Butkin

Further reading listed by the museum

• Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.