Head of a man and figure studies (recto). Minotaur with a maiden (verso)

Head of a man and figure studies (recto). Minotaur with a maiden (verso)

Theodor Richard Edward von Holst

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Holst, the son of a Latvian music master who settled in London in 1807, studied with Henry Fuseli in the 1820s, and shared his teacher's special interest in fantastic, macabre, and supernatural themes. The precise subject of the present sheet is unknown. Holst delineated the features of a long-haired young man in fine, silvery strokes of graphite, then turned the sheet ninety degrees and sketched a scene of balletic grace: a man in tight-fitting garments lifts a woman in flowing draperies above his head. (Variations of this subject appear on the verso.)

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Head of a man and figure studies (recto). Minotaur with a maiden (verso)Head of a man and figure studies (recto). Minotaur with a maiden (verso)Head of a man and figure studies (recto). Minotaur with a maiden (verso)Head of a man and figure studies (recto). Minotaur with a maiden (verso)Head of a man and figure studies (recto). Minotaur with a maiden (verso)

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.