Goetz von Berlichingen Writing His Memoirs

Goetz von Berlichingen Writing His Memoirs

Eugène Delacroix

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The subject of this print is based on a scene in Goethe's play (published in German in 1773; and French in 1823) that tells the story of the life of a German knight (1480-1562) who fought to regain the privileges of free knights, nullified by the emperor Maximilian I in 1495. This lithograph is the fourth in a series of seven illustrations to Goethe's play Goetz von Berlichingen, executed by Delacroix between 1836 and 1843. For a preparatory drawing, see the work in the Robert Lehman Collection (1975.1.614).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Goetz von Berlichingen Writing His MemoirsGoetz von Berlichingen Writing His MemoirsGoetz von Berlichingen Writing His MemoirsGoetz von Berlichingen Writing His MemoirsGoetz von Berlichingen Writing His Memoirs

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.