Female nude reclining

Female nude reclining

Auguste Rodin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This model’s ecstatic pose hints at the erotic nature of many of Rodin’s late drawings. The unselfconscious state brought on by desire and the registration of pleasure in the body appealed to the artist as part of his broader fascination with the expressivity of the female form. Rodin’s frank treatment of sexuality, particularly in his drawings, is a key aspect of his work’s modernity.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.