Portrait of a Woman before a Window

Portrait of a Woman before a Window

William Henry Brown

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

While its subject is unknown, this image has been linked to William Henry Brown, who was among the most prolific silhouette portraitists of the nineteenth century. Brown tended to affix his silhouettes to sepia-toned lithographs that mimicked the look of drawings, as is the case here. Usually made by cutting a profile portrait from black-inked paper, silhouettes were wildly popular throughout the nineteenth century. The democratic nature of the art form can be attributed to the affordability of the materials involved; as scissors, ink, and paper were relatively inexpensive, silhouettes could be commissioned for relatively small sums.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.