Coypel's Don Quixote Tapestries

Illustrating a Spanish Novel in Eighteenth-Century France

The Frick Collection's holdings are graced with two rare Flemish tapestries depicting scenes from the story of Don Quixote

Made around 1730-40 in the Brussels workshop of Peter van den Hecke, these tapestries were inspired by engravings made after twenty-eight cartoons by Charles Coypel, first painter to Louis XV, that were originally woven at the renowned Gobelins Tapestry Manufactory

Although Flemish in origin, the Frick tapestries are recorded as being in the French royal collection from 1749 to at least 1775 .