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A Difficult Question (Une Question Difficile)

1883
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 774
During the 1880s and 1890s, Gaugengigl specialized in historical genre scenes of this kind. In this picture, two connoisseurs examine a statuette, while a second objet d'art awaits their inspection on a chair piled high with books. The dress, chairs, and other accoutrements are all carefully detailed to represent a late seventeenth-or early eighteenth-century interior.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: A Difficult Question (Une Question Difficile)
  • Artist: Ignaz Marcel Gaugengigl (1855–1932)
  • Date: 1883
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Oil on panel
  • Dimensions: 11 5/8 x 16 in. (29.5 x 40.6 cm)
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Martha T. Fiske Collord, in memory of her first husband, Josiah M. Fiske, 1908
  • Object Number: 08.136.10
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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