A Welsh Woman

Sir Hubert von Herkomer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The ruffled cap and large black hat worn by this woman are traditionally Welsh. Herkomer was attracted to humble subjects, focussing early in his career on residents of his native Bavaria–his family were craftspeople who emigrated first to America, then to England in 1863. In the late 1870s Herkomer began to explore British themes and likely became interested in Wales through his friendship with the painter and Welsh landowner Charles William Mansel Lewis. The artist's household included, from 1874, Lulu Griffiths, a Welsh nurse who became his wife in 1884. An impression of this print was exhibited at M. Knoedler & Co., New York in 1882 (no. 2) with the following caption by the artist: "Another young and bold attempt to do something unusual. The lines are too heavily bitten and do not blend with the drypoint work."

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