Young Pilgrim with Guardian Angel

Young Pilgrim with Guardian Angel

Sir George Hayter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A figure kneels near a skull and clasps his hands together as an angel stands behind him in a turbulent landscape. Beneath the large image, the artist sketched a small variation.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Young Pilgrim with Guardian AngelYoung Pilgrim with Guardian AngelYoung Pilgrim with Guardian AngelYoung Pilgrim with Guardian AngelYoung Pilgrim with Guardian Angel

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.