A mounted drummer from the front

A mounted drummer from the front

Marcellus Laroon the Elder

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Laroon came to London from The Hague in 1674 and established himself as a studio assistant to Sir Godfrey Kneller. Working independently, he also painted portraits and drew vivid genre subjects whose unsentimental approach to everyday life anticipates William Hogarth. This small figure drawing on card likely once belonged to a large set and its style echoes engravings Laroon designed in 1687 titled "The Cryes of the City of London Drawne after the Life." Rather than an urban street vendor, however, this shows a uniformed drummer on horseback.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A mounted drummer from the frontA mounted drummer from the frontA mounted drummer from the frontA mounted drummer from the frontA mounted drummer from the front

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.