Joseph Henry of Straffan, Co. Kildare

Joseph Henry of Straffan, Co. Kildare

Pier Leone Ghezzi

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

After inheriting a fortune from his banker father in 1741, Joseph Henry made two trips to Italy to study and collect art. His apparent youth in this caricature suggests that Ghezzi drew it during the Irishman’s first trip of 1744-45, but it could date to his second visit of 1750-51. While still a young man Henry became a serious scholar determined to become a recognized connoisseur. Ghezzi shows him earnestly consulting a guidebook titled Roma Antiqua while standing among broken columns, with a truncated obelisk and other ruins in the distance. An inscription in the artist’s hand at the bottom of the sheet archly describes the subject as: "huomo erudito nelle Antichità e in Letteratura" (a man very learned in the antique and literature). The drawing displays Ghezzi’s distinct draftsmanship, characterized by parallel pen strokes, with contours closed only around the face.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Joseph Henry of Straffan, Co. KildareJoseph Henry of Straffan, Co. KildareJoseph Henry of Straffan, Co. KildareJoseph Henry of Straffan, Co. KildareJoseph Henry of Straffan, Co. Kildare

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.