Peasants fighting in an inn

Peasants fighting in an inn

Adriaen van Ostade

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The painter, and printmaker Adriaen van Ostade who specialized in rustic scenes of peasant life was also a prolific draftsman. This dramatic, rough, and freely drawn sheet depicting peasants fighting in an inn stands apart from the precise and charming scenes of peasant life for which he is best known. Ostade's energetic lines emphasize the clashing motion of the scene.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.