Boy with a Stick

Elizabeth Forbes

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Born in Canada, Forbes studied in New York, Munich, Zandevoort, and Brittany before settling in London in 1883. There she joined the Society of Painter-Etchers and produced more than forty drypoints over six years. After marrying fellow artist Stanhope Forbes in 1889, she moved to Cornwall and focused on painting, since she could no longer rely on the services of an expert printer. A 1922 article states that Forbes, “expressed herself in drypoints of such consummate delicacy and sensitiveness, yet of so much beauty, that they are in a class apart, in no way to be identified with the work of any other artist.” This meditative image of a Breton boy wearing sabots expresses Forbes's interest in local subjects and success at portraying children.

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