Canal with a Boat and Ducks

Anthonie van Borssom

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the tranquil waters of a canal framed by wildly vegetated banks, two little boats are moored near a shed—a record of the Dutch rural landscape. For Van Borssom, a prolific draftsman, painter, and printmaker, the local countryside formed a prime source of inspiration. The vigorous pen and ink lines with which foliage and shrubbery are rendered show the influence of Rembrandt’s renowned landscape etchings. The cool green and blue watercolors, typical of Van Borssom’s palette, complement the expressive penwork and reinforce the stillness of the scene.

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