Study for a male figure in "Comus–The Measure" (recto); Reclining male nude (verso)

Study for a male figure in "Comus–The Measure" (recto); Reclining male nude (verso)

George Richmond

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The study of a muscular male nude on the recto of this sheet relates to Richmond’s painting "Comus" exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1864 (now Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool). The story, told in Milton's masque-poem, concerns a girl separated from her brothers in a dark wood who encounters the reveler Comus and his band of followers. A figure based on this drawing appears near the center of the final composition, and Richmond likely based the pose on a figure in Titian’s painting "The Andrians" (Prado, Madrid).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Study for a male figure in "Comus–The Measure" (recto); Reclining male nude (verso)Study for a male figure in "Comus–The Measure" (recto); Reclining male nude (verso)Study for a male figure in "Comus–The Measure" (recto); Reclining male nude (verso)Study for a male figure in "Comus–The Measure" (recto); Reclining male nude (verso)Study for a male figure in "Comus–The Measure" (recto); Reclining male nude (verso)

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.