Adoration of the Shepherds

Jan Boeckhorst

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Boeckhorst, German by birth, worked in the circle of Peter Paul Rubens in Antwerp.The subject and composition of this large, vigorous drawing along with the arch shape of the top of the sheet suggest that it was created as a design for an altarpiece. The artist created numerous paintings altarpieces and paintings for churches after 1650 and this sheet likely dates to that period. Brush drawings in black ink like this one are less common in Boeckhorst's oeuvre. The Met's other sheet (2000.108) is also an arched design for an altarpiece, was rendered in brush and brown ink with white wash and that appears more typical.

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