Seated Man and Woman (c. 1830–60): Art, History and Details

Seated Man and Woman (c. 1830–60) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Célestin François Nanteuil (French, 1813–1873).

The work and its context

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

This drawing shows Célestin Nanteuil’s accomplishments as both a fine artist and illustrator. On one side, a couple converses, depicted in dense areas of ink—a practice Nanteuil learned from his friend, the author and artist Victor Hugo. Nanteuil scratched into these dark areas to create highlights. The back of the sheet features casually sketched vignettes, probably designed to accompany text in a book.

Object facts

• Title: Seated Man and Woman
• Date: c. 1830–60
• Creator attribution: Célestin François Nanteuil (French, 1813–1873)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: pen and brown ink, watercolor and scoring (recto), pen and brown ink (verso) on medium weight wove paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 25.8 x 19.8 cm (10 3/16 x 7 13/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2018.1064

A detail from the museum

Nanteuil was close friends with the writer and artist Victor Hugo, who influenced his work.

Collection credit

Bequest of Muriel Butkin

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.