Design for a Stove and Wall Fountain (?)

Friedrich Sustris

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This sheet contains two drawings separated by a thin vertical line in the middle. It is not entirely clear whether they represent two views of the same object, or whether they in fact show two different elements of an interior. The design on the left is clearly recognizable as the side elevation of a large stove, typical for Central Europe from the late Middle Ages onward. The design on the right could be one of two things. It might be a frontal view of the same stove, outfitted with a niche and vessel to supply hot water. Although ingenious, this does not appear to have been common at the time however. It might therefore sooner have to be considered as a separate design for a wall fountain or lavabo. From contemporary views of interiors it is known that the combination of stove and lavabo was often found in the bedroom and it was not uncommon to match their designs in the endeavor to create some unity in the style of the interior.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art