Study of a Standing Woman

Study of a Standing Woman

Angelica Kauffmann

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This sheet is a preliminary study for one of the mothers in Kauffman’s painting Let the Little Children Come unto Me from around 1796. The painting depicts a scene from Matthew 19:14 in which Christ blesses the children that are brought to see him. In this drawing, Kauffman meticulously renders the mother’s dress. Taking the paper as a base color, she shades in reverse, using energetic strokes of white chalk to bring out the luminous quality of the fabric. In the painting, the mother carries an infant in her left arm and holds the hand of another in her right, both represented on this sheet as faint outlines.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Study of a Standing WomanStudy of a Standing WomanStudy of a Standing WomanStudy of a Standing WomanStudy of a Standing Woman

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.