A Tomb and Studies of Windows in the Church of Valmont Abbey (recto); Four Studies of Horses (verso)

A Tomb and Studies of Windows in the Church of Valmont Abbey (recto); Four Studies of Horses (verso)

Eugène Delacroix

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This drawing of the church at Valmont in Normandy shows Delacroix’s masterful handling of the wash medium to create a shadowy ambience. During his visits to his cousin’s estate there, Delacroix was especially transfixed by the partially ruined fifteenth-century church on the property, which appealed to his Romantic imagination. After his first trip, he recalled, "Above all, the old church, half-ruined, where there were tombs, great Gothic windows with dark stained glass, and vaults containing the foundations of the abbey, all of these things inspired a host of romantic ideas." The dreamlike atmosphere conjured by the artist in this wash drawing corresponds with his written reflections on the church as a space of reverie.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A Tomb and Studies of Windows in the Church of Valmont Abbey (recto); Four Studies of Horses (verso)A Tomb and Studies of Windows in the Church of Valmont Abbey (recto); Four Studies of Horses (verso)A Tomb and Studies of Windows in the Church of Valmont Abbey (recto); Four Studies of Horses (verso)A Tomb and Studies of Windows in the Church of Valmont Abbey (recto); Four Studies of Horses (verso)A Tomb and Studies of Windows in the Church of Valmont Abbey (recto); Four Studies of Horses (verso)

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.