Standing Man with His Right Hand on His Chest

Standing Man with His Right Hand on His Chest

François André Vincent

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This sheet is a study for the figure of Cinna, who appears in Vincent’s 1787 painting The Clemency of Augustus as the grateful recipient of the Roman emperor’s mercy. In the compositional study (see 1985.245.2), Cinna is drawn in the same pose, nude, while in the finished painting, he wears classical garb. In this quickly executed sketch, Vincent drew the left arm a second time, experimenting with the position of the hand.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Standing Man with His Right Hand on His ChestStanding Man with His Right Hand on His ChestStanding Man with His Right Hand on His ChestStanding Man with His Right Hand on His ChestStanding Man with His Right Hand on His Chest

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.