Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, from "Le Monde Illustré"

Anonymous, French, 19th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The sculptor Carpeaux died on October 12, 1875 and this full-page tribute appeared a few days later in the French weekly newspaper "Le Monde Illustré." His likeness, based on a photograph by Numa Blanc, is framed by two of his sculptural works: "Imperial France Bringing Light to the World and Protecting Science, Agriculture, and Industry" above, and "The Triumph of Flora" below. Both groups decorate the south façade of the Pavillon de Flore at the Musée du Louvre, Paris and were unveiled in 1866.

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