A Painter at Work in his Studio

A Painter at Work in his Studio

Thomas Wijck

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This large drawing by Wijck is a variant of two works by his probable teacher, Adriaen van Ostade: a 1663 painting in Berlin (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister) and a slightly later print (see 17.50.15-349), both of which show a painter working at an easel within a very similar studio space. Various motifs—the paned windows, the spiral staircase, the sheep’s skull and lute hanging on the walls, and the open trunk and basket on the floor—are found in one or both of these works. Wijck’s drawing, like Ostade’s painting (less so the print), presents the studio as a humble interior in a state of disorder—interpreted as the material consequences of the profession, to which the painter himself is oblivious.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A Painter at Work in his StudioA Painter at Work in his StudioA Painter at Work in his StudioA Painter at Work in his StudioA Painter at Work in his Studio

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.