The Infant Moses, from "Dalziels' Bible Gallery"

Simeon Solomon

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This wood engraving is based on an oil titled "Moses" that Solomon exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1860 (now Delaware Art Museum), when he was only nineteen. Part of the second generation of Pre-Raphaelites, and from a Jewish family, the artist's early subjects were inspired by the Hebrew Bible, and strove for ethnic and archaeological accuracy. The harp and pottery vessel hanging by the window, for example, derive from Assyrian carvings at the British Museum, and the features of both mother and sister were based on those of a relative, Fanny Cohen. Solomon's conception emphasizes the loving familial bonds that later will draw Moses from a life in Pharoah's court, back to assume leadership of the Children of Israel.

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