A Waterfall in a Forest at Langhennersdorf

Christoph Nathe

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Considered a precursor to the German Romanticists, Nathe composed this drawing to immerse the viewer in a dramatic landscape. The trees extend above the upper edge of the paper and the low vantage point affords only the slightest view of the top of the ravine, creating a feeling of solitude. The vertical format of the sheet emphasizes the downward rush of water.

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