Autumn (Scene in a Roman Garden)

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Known for evocative recreations of the ancient world, Alma-Tadema here represents Roman men and women of different ages enjoying a warm fall day. At left, two young men sit in companionable contemplation near an older bearded figure whose pose and expression convey stoicism. The stillness of the seated forms contrasts with the suggested movement of a young couple strolling on a path at right. The curved marble bench, or exedra, bears a Latin inscription that refers to the Emperor Hadrian and demonstrates how the artist skillfully adapted archaeological sources to add authenticity. In this case, the form is borrowed from a bench-shaped memorial-tomb on the Via dei Sepolcri at Pompeii. Visually, its curved form brings several figures into proximity without implying a specific narrative. An exquisite example of the artist’s draftsmanship, this sheet was created for the printmaker Leopold Löwenstam, who regularly etched Alma-Tadema’s compositions, and a related print was published in 1880.

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