Designs for Memorial Plaques

John La Farge's three-panel design study demonstrates the ornamental vocabulary of late nineteenth-century ecclesiastical art. The center panel—rendered in full color—shows a gilded cross crowned above a floral composition in blues, reds, and greens, framed by architectural molding. The flanking sketches in graphite establish the structural proportions for this devotional format. La Farge, a leading figure in American decorative arts, synthesized Romanesque and Byzantine ornamental traditions for religious interiors and memorial commissions. The scale notation indicates the plaque's modest size, typical of church furnishings and funerary monuments of the period.