Girl on a swing, a man with his arms raised; folio 21 (recto) from the Madrid Album "B"

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The drawing here captures the joy of outdoor activity. A smiling girl swings freely, while a man raises his hands and cries out—presumably encouraging her. It would not be surprising if Goya sought to imply sexual tension between the pair; other sheets from the album have similar overtones. The expression on the girl’s face suggests coyness or flirtation. There are undeniable sexual overtones in the drawing on the other side of the page (35.103.3). The smiling young maja (a fashionable, confident, and carefree young Spanish woman from the lower classes), eyes wide open, stands demurely in shadow, while a soldier cranes his neck before making his next move.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art