Study for a Decoration for the Salle des Fêtes of the Town Hall of Paris's 11th arrondissement (1897): Art, History and Details

Study for a Decoration for the Salle des Fêtes of the Town Hall of Paris's 11th arrondissement (1897) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Victor Emile Prouvé (French, 1858–1943).

The work and its context

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

An avid draftsman, Victor Prouvé was known for his role in the École de Nancy, a group of artists active in the art nouveau movement, which integrated fine and decorative arts. This drawing relates to Prouvé's design for a mural intended to decorate the community center in the town hall of Paris's 11th arrondissement. By creating sophisticated designs for a broad public in such spaces, the artist sought to forge a role for vanguard art in everyday life.

Object facts

• Title: Study for a Decoration for the Salle des Fêtes of the Town Hall of Paris's 11th arrondissement
• Date: 1897
• Creator attribution: Victor Emile Prouvé (French, 1858–1943)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: watercolor with black chalk framing lines on beige wove paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 45.9 x 64.5 cm (18 1/16 x 25 3/8 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2015.453

A detail from the museum

The mural painting to which this drawing relates was one of two major designs that Victor Prouvé created for town halls throughout Paris; he also decorated the staircase of a public building in Issy-les-Moulineaux, a Paris suburb.

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.