Ornamental Decoration

Charles Errard, II · n.d.

Medium

Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown wash, heightened with white gouache, over traces of graphite, on buff laid paper, laid down on ivory laid paper

Original size

8.6 × 12.9 cm (3 7/16 × 5 1/8 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Baroque

Ornamental Decoration exemplifies the refined draftsmanship that defined French classical design at its most assured — intricate, controlled, and effortlessly elegant. Charles Errard II occupied a pivotal position in seventeenth-century French art. A founding member of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1648, he later served as the first director of the French Academy in Rome, a role that placed him at the centre of the exchange between French taste and Italian classical tradition. Works like this one reflect that synthesis: the layered technique of pen and brown ink, wash, and white gouache over graphite traces creates a luminous interplay of depth and surface that rewards close looking. The buff laid paper lends a warmth that grounds the composition and gives the white heightening its particular glow. Errard contributed to the decorative programmes at Versailles during the reign of Louis XIV, cementing his reputation as one of the essential figures in establishing France's visual authority across Europe. Translating a work of this character into oil on canvas is a delicate undertaking. Our artists study the tonal range and textural layering of the original to render its sense of light and weight — preserving the quiet confidence of Errard's hand in a medium built to last.