The Russian Concert (Le concert russien)

René Gaillard

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Le Prince trained in the studio of François Boucher, where he learned drawing, painting, and printmaking. He traveled to Russia in 1757, spending time in St. Petersburg and the surrounding countryside. Following his return to Paris in 1763, Russian genre scenes would dominate his output for the following decade. This print by René Gaillard is based on a painting in the collection of Jean Denis Lempereur. A woman in exotic garb and draped in pearls listens attentively as two musicians perform in a richly appointed interior.

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