Hide and Seek

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the gardens of the Villa Albani near Rome, a girl (perhaps the gardener's daughter) sits at the top of a classical staircase and holds one finger to her lips. A hooded youth stands below and leans in as though he has just discovered her. Behind is an expansive terraced garden with a figure on one of the paths. Terms on tall pillars mark the top of the staircase. The print is based on an oil on canvas of 1876 now at the Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad.

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