Invitation with vignette from "The First Born" (with text)

Invitation with vignette from "The First Born" (with text)

Sir Hubert von Herkomer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Herkomer made this etching to invite friends, and potential patrons, to view his recently finished paintings on April 1–2, 1887 at 22B Ebury Street, his London studio. The private view on Saturday April 2, 1887 was attended by Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) and Alexandra, Princess of Wales (later Queen Alexandra). The figures of a young carpenter with his wife and baby, used to frame the text here, derive from Herkomer's painting "The First Born," which he exhibited shortly afterward at the Royal Academy. The imagery demonstrates sympathy for working men and women while the print sheds light on ways that Victorian artists promoted their work.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Invitation with vignette from "The First Born" (with text)Invitation with vignette from "The First Born" (with text)Invitation with vignette from "The First Born" (with text)Invitation with vignette from "The First Born" (with text)Invitation with vignette from "The First Born" (with text)

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.