The Invention of the Art of Drawing (the daughter of Butades of Sicyon and her Lover)

(Johann Heinrich) Ferdinand Olivier

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Making an unusual choice, the Olivier brothers set the Greek origin story of the art of drawing in the woods, rather than in an interior. The inventor traces the shadow of her beloved on a rock, the secluded, natural setting heightening the romantic tenor of the scene.

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