Portrait of Godert Dircksz. Kerckrinck

Jan Thopas

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jan Thopas was a 17th-century Dutch painter who was mainly known for his portraits. This drawing of the German merchant Kerckrinck was done posthumously and most likely based on a painting by Govert Flinck. Where Flinck’s portrait is rather subdued, Thopas added various details, such as the chain around his neck and the gloves in his hand, to bring the portrait to life. The cartouche is also his own addition, although this would later give cause for the attribution to his hand to be doubted. The Auricular motifs were the principle reason for someone to reattribute the drawing to Johannes Lutma the Elder. There is no reason to do so however, since we know many more artists used the organic vocabulary of shapes in their works and, in fact, several portraits by Thopas include similar cartouches are known.

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