A Farm Building

Emanuel Murant

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The keen observation of architectural detail for which Amsterdam painter Emanuel Murant was known was largely the result of his drawing practice. In this sheet, likely made in front of the motif (naar het leven), rapid strokes of black chalk and gray wash capture the varied textures of the rough-hewn wooden planks, thatched roof, and sprawling bushes. A structure with a similar roof and gable, though in apparently better condition, appears in a painting by Murant known from a photograph.[1] (JSS, 8/24/2018) [1] See Walter Liedtke, “Murant and His Milieu: A Biography of Emanuel Murant, the “Rustic Forerunner of Jan van der Heyden,” in In His Milieu: Essays on Netherlandish Art in Memory of John Michael Montias, ed. Amy Golahny et al. (Amsterdam University Press, 2006), p. 234, fig. 1.

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