Lutteurs (The Wrestlers), from "Le Monde Illustré"

Auguste Joliet

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Falguière had worked mainly as a sculptor—he won the prix de Rome for sculpture in 1859—before submitting "Lutteurs," as his first major canvas to the Salon in 1875, earning a second class medal for the work. Critics were split in their opinions of the painting according to their position relative to realism; some saw the subject as unworthy, while others saw it as representative of modern life. This wood engraving published in "Le Monde Illustré" is representative of how major artworks at the annual Salon circulated visually among a public that may or may not have visited the exhibition in person.

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