Travelers in a Forest

Herman Saftleven II

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Herman Saftleven was a prolific draftsman. Among the diverse subjects that he treated, he made many drawings of invented landscapes drawn in a combination of brown wash and black chalk. This beautiful sheet depicting travelers walking through a forest on a windy day was rendered with great freedom. Saftleven created depth and a play of light through the foliage by masterfully layering the black chalk with wash and small touches of white heightening.

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