Design for a Painted Porcelain Plate, L'Écrevisse (Cancer) from the Le Zodiaque Travesti (The Farcical Zodiac) Service
Design for a painted porcelain plate, square format. Scene at a seafood restaurant whose sign is posted in the doorway: " à l'ecrevisse / et sa fille." A couple, right foreground, stand at the restaurant entrance. The figure of a man smokes a pipe, the woman stands with her left hand on her hip and gestures to a young, well-dressed couple seated outside the restaurant at a table beneath an arbor. The young woman is taken by surprise when she sees her aunt and exclaims, "What are you doing here auntie--what are you coming to do?"
Credit: Museum purchase through gift of James Amster
1824
Pen and brown, black ink, brush and brown, black wash, white gouache, red crayon, pink, tan watercolor, red crayon, graphite on cream laid paper mounted on cream laid paper, ruled border in pen and brown ink
1989-13-40
Image and text © Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2020
Where you'll find this
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Permanent collection