Woman with dark hair and a bow in profile to the left

Woman with dark hair and a bow in profile to the left

Wenceslaus Hollar

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Portrait of a woman, head and shoulders almost in profile to left, with curly hair falling over her shoulders and a bow on the side, wearing transparent collar with double lace flounce over bodice laced across her chest.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Woman with dark hair and a bow in profile to the leftWoman with dark hair and a bow in profile to the leftWoman with dark hair and a bow in profile to the leftWoman with dark hair and a bow in profile to the leftWoman with dark hair and a bow in profile to the left

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.