A man in a hat looking up

A man in a hat looking up

Cornelis Dusart

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Dusart, a pupil of Adriaen van Ostade, followed closely in his master's footsteps and indeed took over the contents of Ostade's studio after the artist's death in 1685. Like his teacher, Dusart produced beautiful images of peasants. While his subject matter derives from that of Ostade, Dusart's technique and figure style are more elegant and refined. The artist's refined style can be observed in this head of a man skillfully rendered in black chalk on vellum. The drawing displays large margins all around which were often trimmed in the 18th century.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A man in a hat looking upA man in a hat looking upA man in a hat looking upA man in a hat looking upA man in a hat looking up

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.