Five Men Pushing a Block of Stone

Jacques Stella

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In this vivid depiction of manual labor, Stella captures the exertions of five men moving a stone block using two long poles for leverage. The authenticity of the vignette is heightened by the artist’s economy of means. Employing black chalk and gray wash, Stella left areas of the sheet in reserve, or unworked, to convey the bright fall of sunshine on the men and on the top face of the block.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art