Combat of Nude Men, after Raphael

Eugène Delacroix

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In Raphael, Delacroix admired "perfection of drawing, grace, and composition." Most of his copies after the Italian Renaissance master are based on reproductive prints, including this sheet derived from an etching after a red-chalk drawing by Raphael (ca. 1508–10; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford). The sepia ink of the print may explain Delacroix’s choice of brown ink for his slightly smaller copy of the lively composition, executed faithfully with the exception of the incomplete figure lying on the ground.

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