Portrait of the painter Eduardo Zamacois seated at a table

Portrait of the painter Eduardo Zamacois seated at a table

Mariano Fortuny, 1838–1874

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Eduardo Zamacois y Zabala　(1841–1871) was a painter of Basque ancestry who, after training in Paris, traveled to Rome in 1866 and befriended Fortuny. The inscription on this print—"A mi q. Zamacois" (to my dear Zamacois)—reflects their friendship. Recognizing Fortuny’s talent as a printmaker, Zamacois introduced him to the publisher Adolphe Goupil in Paris. Goupil offered Fortuny a contract and published all his etchings. The print was made after Fortuny’s reputation as a printmaker had been established. It is possible that he produced it as a token of his thanks to Zamacois for helping him in his career.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Portrait of the painter Eduardo Zamacois seated at a tablePortrait of the painter Eduardo Zamacois seated at a tablePortrait of the painter Eduardo Zamacois seated at a tablePortrait of the painter Eduardo Zamacois seated at a tablePortrait of the painter Eduardo Zamacois seated at a table

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.