Hunters in an Outlook on a Mountain

Hunters in an Outlook on a Mountain

August Leopold Venus

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

High in the mountains two hunters converse beneath a canopy of sundrenched leaves, while a third man climbs stairs that have been carved into the rockface. Contrasting with the warm brown tones of this human-altered landscape are the cool blues of the surrounding sky and distant hills, which effectively convey the figures’ altitude and imply, rather than show, the airy expanse around them.

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.