Phantasie und Künstler (Imagination and the Artist) (recto); Studie zu Phantasie und Künstler (Study for Imagination and the Artists) (verso)

Phantasie und Künstler (Imagination and the Artist) (recto); Studie zu Phantasie und Künstler (Study for Imagination and the Artists) (verso)

Max Klinger

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Phantasie und Künstler is a design for an invitation to a party at the Karlsruhe Akademie where Klinger was a student in 1872-73. An inventive and exuberant work, the sketch on the verso shows an alternate design for the composition and provides insight into Klinger's workiing method. The subject is the combination of art and Eros that pervades the artist's oeuvre and for which he was famous.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Phantasie und Künstler (Imagination and the Artist) (recto); Studie zu Phantasie und Künstler (Study for Imagination and the Artists) (verso)Phantasie und Künstler (Imagination and the Artist) (recto); Studie zu Phantasie und Künstler (Study for Imagination and the Artists) (verso)Phantasie und Künstler (Imagination and the Artist) (recto); Studie zu Phantasie und Künstler (Study for Imagination and the Artists) (verso)Phantasie und Künstler (Imagination and the Artist) (recto); Studie zu Phantasie und Künstler (Study for Imagination and the Artists) (verso)Phantasie und Künstler (Imagination and the Artist) (recto); Studie zu Phantasie und Künstler (Study for Imagination and the Artists) (verso)

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.