Portrait of a Man

Portrait of a Man

Louis Lafitte

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Lafitte won first place in the prix de Rome of 1791 and was awarded study as a pensionnaire at the Académie de France in Rome. It was in Rome that he created this psychologically penetrating portrait of a stylish and pensive young man against a dramatically lit sky. The proto-Romantic sensibility of the sheet is emphasized by the composition, which sets the subject, perhaps a fellow artist, against a distant landscape with a low horizon line. Later that year, hostilities against the French caused Lafitte to seek refuge in Florence.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Portrait of a ManPortrait of a ManPortrait of a ManPortrait of a ManPortrait of a Man

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.