Ernest Chassériau (?)

Théodore Chassériau

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The sitter is thought to be the artist’s brother, Ernest, an infantry officer in the French navy, who died during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71). Chassériau’s crayon seems to have virtually danced across the sheet, as it marked the contours and creases of Ernest’s jacket, waistcoat, and tie. The sitter’s penetrating gaze and refined features are treated with a tenderness befitting a beloved brother.

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