Monument for Sir Joshua Reynolds, from "Carlton House Magazine"

Monument for Sir Joshua Reynolds, from "Carlton House Magazine"

John Saunders

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Allegorical figures appear before a small circular temple of the arts that is adorned with portraits of Reynolds, Raphael and Titian, its roof crowned with the winged horse Pegasus. Father Time sits at lower left, placing his scythe on the ground. A boy with a flame at his brow—the Genius of Painting—leans against Time's knee and restrains him while passing two sketchbooks to a woman dressed in classical robes. Her right hand rests on an oval portrait of Reynolds. A palette and brushes lean against the latter, while papers, books and canvases surround her. Reynolds died the year that this commemorative engraving was published and its imagery declares that his achievements have earned him a place beside the greatest masters and will ensure the preservation of his work. "The Carlton-House magazine: or, Annals of taste, fashion, and politeness," was published from January 1792 to February 1796.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Monument for Sir Joshua Reynolds, from "Carlton House Magazine"Monument for Sir Joshua Reynolds, from "Carlton House Magazine"Monument for Sir Joshua Reynolds, from "Carlton House Magazine"Monument for Sir Joshua Reynolds, from "Carlton House Magazine"Monument for Sir Joshua Reynolds, from "Carlton House Magazine"

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.