View of the Colosseum from the Basilica of Domitian and the Flavian Palace, Rome

View of the Colosseum from the Basilica of Domitian and the Flavian Palace, Rome

Henri-Joseph Harpignies

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

It was in Italy that landscape painter Harpignies first took up watercolor in 1849. This drawing dates from his second sojourn in 1863–65 and demonstrates his mastery of the medium. By reserving white areas of the paper, Harpignies brilliantly conveys the bleaching effect of the bright Italian sunshine across the shadowy gray and brown tones of the ruins. The artist made two other versions of this composition—one almost twice as large as this sheet—so it was likely for the purpose of repeating and enlarging that he lightly squared this drawing in graphite.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

View of the Colosseum from the Basilica of Domitian and the Flavian Palace, RomeView of the Colosseum from the Basilica of Domitian and the Flavian Palace, RomeView of the Colosseum from the Basilica of Domitian and the Flavian Palace, RomeView of the Colosseum from the Basilica of Domitian and the Flavian Palace, RomeView of the Colosseum from the Basilica of Domitian and the Flavian Palace, Rome

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.