A Couple Shaking Hands, from Grotisch fur alle Kunstler

A Couple Shaking Hands, from Grotisch fur alle Kunstler

Theodor de Bry

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Framed in an oval at center, a man, at left, and woman, at right, shake hands, while a putto pours water over their hands and into a basin decorated with a grotesque mask. The oval is surrounded by symmetrical ornamental design with a pair of birds at the upper left and upper right. At the left and right edge, segmented ovals with the artist's signature. Associated with the series, Grotisch fur alle Kunstler, consisting of four plates.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A Couple Shaking Hands, from Grotisch fur alle KunstlerA Couple Shaking Hands, from Grotisch fur alle KunstlerA Couple Shaking Hands, from Grotisch fur alle KunstlerA Couple Shaking Hands, from Grotisch fur alle KunstlerA Couple Shaking Hands, from Grotisch fur alle Kunstler

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.