Salvator Rosa among the Brigands

Adolphe Pierre Riffaut

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

During the 1840s, the Italian Baroque painter Salvator Rosa was celebrated in Britain and France as a proto-Romantic artist known especially for his depictions of bandits in rugged landscapes, such as Bandits on a Rocky Coast, 1655–60 (134.137). Rosa's own life story conflated with his subject matter and published biographies such as Lady Morgan’s "The Life and Times of Salvator Rosa" (1824) recounted the myth of his own capture by bandits in the Abruzzi mountains. This print reproduces a painting (now lost) by Guignet based on this tale that he exhibited in the Salon of 1844. The commentary accompanying its publication in the journal "L'Artiste" on March 24, 1844 stated, "The story of Salvator Rosa among the brigands is as well known as that of Adam and Eve." Guignet's reputation became closely associated with Rosa. Poet and critic Charles Baudelaire even remarked upon the affinity between their works in his Salon critiques of 1845 and 1846.

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