Lunchtime Gallery Talk: Exotic Eccentricities FREE

Petitot’s ‘Suite de Vases’

To a modern audience, this series of designs for vases and other objects by the French neo-classical draughtsman, Eurimond Petitot, published in 1764, is fascinating on account of its eccentric aspects, often seeming to prefigure surrealism. This display of prints for the Suite de Vases series has been organized to coincide with the major Matthew Boulton exhibition in the Coin Gallery, and it is possible, although unprovable, that Boulton may have been aware of this series of designs, as he was ever vigilant for new sources of inspiration for his own decorative wares. Acquired in 1964 but never publicly displayed before, the prints have been specially conserved for this occasion.