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Lean-to Writing Desk (secrétaire en pente)

Bernard Vanrisamburgh II, c. 1750

53 cm × 80 cm

About the size of a bathroom mirror. You would need 2 of them to reach a person's height.

Against things you know the size of

Height: 80 cm
Width: 53 cm
Medium: veneered on oak (stained purple on the underside of the top) with tulipwood cut on the quarter, root-cut kingwood, and other end-cut woods; gilded bronze mounts
Kind: Decorative Art
Where the measurement comes from: Measured by the museum. The dimension is the one recorded by the institution that holds the work.
Credit: Widener Collection

Five questions, answered from its own record. What is AGAI?

How big is it?: 53 cm × 80 cm. About the size of a bathroom mirror. Measured by the museum.
When was it made, and when is it everyone’s?: Made c. 1750. It is in the public domain, and National Gallery of Art publishes it for open use.
Whose is it?: Everyone’s to see. It is held by National Gallery of Art: Widener Collection.
How was it made?: Veneered on oak (stained purple on the underside of the top) with tulipwood cut on the quarter, root-cut kingwood, and other end-cut woods; gilded bronze mounts.
Who speaks for it?: Its record at National Gallery of Art. Measured by the museum. This gallery adds nothing it cannot cite.

This work is in the reference only. The gallery hangs a selection of the collection at real size.

One email. The smallest thing in the collection, the largest, and two that hang well together.

Scored on colour, shape, era and scale, the same way the gallery hangs them.