Study of Three Old Gnarled Trees

Study of Three Old Gnarled Trees

Jan Siberechts

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

With a delicate use of gray wash and watercolor, Siberechts details the irregular forms and rugged textures of three trunks, arrayed across the sheet. A Flemish landscape painter who specialized in rustic and pastoral scenes, he spent his later years in England working for aristocratic clients. From the date on this work, however, it would appear that it was executed in or around his native Antwerp.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Study of Three Old Gnarled TreesStudy of Three Old Gnarled TreesStudy of Three Old Gnarled TreesStudy of Three Old Gnarled TreesStudy of Three Old Gnarled Trees

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.