Study of a dog

Sir Edwin Henry Landseer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The careful preparations that underpinned Landseer's accomplishments as an animal painter are revealed here. Compared to traditional French three color chalk drawings, the Englishman's technique is rugged and focused on anatomy. His primary concern is with the distinctive shape of the dog's head and its intent expression. A lightly sketched human hand holding a cloth in the right foreground reveals how the animal's attention was held long enough for the artist to capture its form on paper.

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