Portrait of a Young Man

Portrait of a Young Man

Pierre Narcisse Guérin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This portrait drawing of a young man in classical dress is a rarity in Guérin's oeuvre. The subject was likely one of his students, rendered here in a soft, diffuse light, with his eyes uplifted and curls of dark hair framing his face. After Guérin's death, the drawings remaining in his studio were divided between nine of his students, with instructions that they share them with other students, not named in the will. In this case, we know from the inscription on the mount that the drawing went first to Alphonse-Henri Périn (1798-1874), who then presented it to Stéphane Vignes. Other drawings from Guérin's studio are mounted on similar blue mounts and feature similar inscriptions.

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.