Dalziels' Bible Gallery: Illustrations from the Old Testament

Dalziel Brothers

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Title, contents, etc., followed by 62 wood engravings on India paper mounted on light ivory card. The Dalziel Brothers began a project for an illustrated bible in 1863, commissioning images from leading artists, and beginning to engrave the designs into blocks, but publication was then delayed until 1881, with the first edition issued in London. This copy was published slightly later, in New York.

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