A Young Man Seated on the Ground

A Young Man Seated on the Ground

Jan Miel

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jan Miel, a Flemish artist active in Rome from the 1630s, specialized in genre scenes and landscapes populated by figures like this man, probably a shepherd or outdoor laborer resting on the ground. The drawing is executed in a combination of black chalk and ink—the latter discernible in the contours of the legs and proper right shoulder and in the man’s face and hair. The selective touches of white anticipate the crisp strokes of lead white with which Miel often enlivened his richly toned paintings (see, for example, 93.29). A similar study by Miel of a man wearing the same type of sheepskin vest but notably less refined shoes appeared in a sale at Christie’s Paris, March 26, 2014 (lot 73). (JSS, 8/24/2018)

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A Young Man Seated on the GroundA Young Man Seated on the GroundA Young Man Seated on the GroundA Young Man Seated on the GroundA Young Man Seated on the Ground

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.