Head of a Bearded Man in a Hat

Head of a Bearded Man in a Hat

Adriaen van Ostade

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of the emblematic painters of seventeenth-century Holland, Adriaen van Ostade was also a prolific draftsman. This sensitive drawing is arguably the best of a small group of head studies by him. Three of those, all in the British Museum, London, also depict an old peasant in a hat, possibly the same model. All four studies may have been done from life. Because this drawing represents its subject not as a type or caricature but as a stern-looking, even melancholy human marked by life, it can be called an exception in the oeuvre of Van Ostade, whose figures are usually seen laughing, drinking, smoking and dancing—or worse. The modest subject of the drawing contrasts with its refined technique. In addition to red and black chalk, Van Ostade used blue pastel to subtly color the hat and the man's jerkin.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Head of a Bearded Man in a HatHead of a Bearded Man in a HatHead of a Bearded Man in a HatHead of a Bearded Man in a HatHead of a Bearded Man in a Hat

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.