Studies of fairies with a pair of hands (possibly representing the Opening of Pandora's Box)

William Lock the Younger

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The son of a prominent art collector, Lock studied with William Gilpin and became a favorite of Henry Fuseli who described the youth's drawings as "unrivaled by any man of this day...for invention, taste and spirit." Despite such encouragement, Lock largely gave up artistic practice while still in his twenties. This sheet of sketches centers on an open casket containing female figures and winged creatures whose classical drapery and idealized bodies recall Fuseli’s depictions of Ariel from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night’s Dream," and Gloriana from Spenser's "Faerie Queene." Other forms, such as the thin-winged creature at the far left, anticipate the fanciful fairies created by Victorian artists.

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