Sculptor at Work on a Colossal Statue

Sculptor at Work on a Colossal Statue

Carl August Ehrensvärd

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This image of an artist carving a work that dwarfs him while a trumpeter plays is one of numerous autobiographical drawings the Swedish sculptor Ehrensvärd made throughout his career that reveal both the convivial and the melancholy sides of his personality. While it encapsulates the Piranesi-esque idea of modern man overwhelmed by the magnitude of the monuments of antiquity, Ehrensvärd's drawing is less histrionic in tone.


Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sculptor at Work on a Colossal StatueSculptor at Work on a Colossal StatueSculptor at Work on a Colossal StatueSculptor at Work on a Colossal StatueSculptor at Work on a Colossal Statue

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.