The Child's Prayer, from "Illustrated London News"

The Child's Prayer, from "Illustrated London News"

William Luson Thomas

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A young girl kneels by a bed to pray in a humble room under the eaves. Linton's wood engraving reproduces a work by Le Jeune who, at the start of his career focused on biblical and literary subjects, then turned mostly to genre paintings of children. After entering the Royal Academy Schools in 1834, Le Jeune exhibited "Joseph Interpreting the Dream of Pharoah's Chief Butler" at the Academy in 1840 and, the next year won a gold medal for "Samson Bursting his Bonds." Between 1845 and 1864 he taught first at the Government School of Design, then at the Royal Academy, also becoming curator to the latter institution. "The Child's Prayer" combines his early interest in religious subjects with later skills at portraying children.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Child's Prayer, from "Illustrated London News"The Child's Prayer, from "Illustrated London News"The Child's Prayer, from "Illustrated London News"The Child's Prayer, from "Illustrated London News"The Child's Prayer, from "Illustrated London News"

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.