Fallen Warriors and a Runaway Horse

Eugène Delacroix

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This late drawing of fallen warriors and a runaway horse shows how the fluidity of pen and ink enabled swift execution that could keep pace with Delacroix’s free-flowing "premières pensées" (first thoughts). The artist was generating ideas for two battle scenes when he made this drawing: "Botzaris Attacks the Turkish Camp" (1860−62; Toledo Museum of Art) and "Arabs Skirmishing in the Mountains" (1863; National Gallery of Art, Washington). Although the fleeing horse is the only moving subject in the foreground, the animated quality of line lends the sprawled figures a sense of vitality.

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