Writing Desk

The fact that this desk has a relatively simple decoration suggests that it was probably commissioned or purchased by an aristocratic or professional patron rather than the royal crown. Strongly associated with masculine pursuits like business, writing, and study, bureaux plats like this often appear in portraits of men, and to a lesser extent of women, who sought to identify themselves as learned, worldly, and competent. Their sheer size, compared to the smaller, more delicate “women’s” desks (like the highly decorative mechanical table nearby), also endowed their users with a degree of monumentality.