Study for Astyanax’s Nurse

Study for Astyanax’s Nurse

Pierre Paul Prud'hon

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This drawing is a study for The Met's painting, Andromache and Astyanax, begun by Prud’hon in 1813 as a commission for Empress Marie-Louise. Left incomplete at the artist’s death in 1823, the canvas would be completed by his student, Charles Boulanger de Boisfremont (1773-1838). Quickly sketched in black and white chalk on blue paper, the study depicts Astyanax’s nurse, who, in the painting, sits in the right foreground facing Andromache, her arms extended towards her ward. Executed quickly, with brusque, energetic strokes, it intermixes parallel hatching in black and white chalk to effective model the heavy folds of the drapery and the highlights on the arms and face.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.