Babes in the Wood

Sir Hubert von Herkomer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Herkomer here represents a boy and girl imagining a perilous journey through a forest, modeling the children on his own daughter and son, Elsa and Siegfried. This proof was made as the artist prepared an etching for the "The Art Journal"– published January 1881. In the latter, the image was accompanied by explanatory text that reads, "The artist's children, playing at a game which is better known in Germany than here, pursue their way through a forest (represented by the old familiar wooden tree on the table) infested with lions, dragons, and other beasts of prey. The affected terror on their faces is delightfully rendered." Born in Bavaria, Herkomer moved to London as a boy and enjoyed considerable success painting oils and watercolors. Later in his career he became an accomplished etcher and mezzotint engraver. He often chose subjects inspired by his German heritage, here evoking a fairy tale similar to ones recorded by the brothers Grimm.

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