Malle Babbe, after Frans Hals

Jules-Ferdinand Jacquemart

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jacquemart made this print after the painting (71.76)—attributed at the time to Frans Hals—as part of a portfolio celebrating the founding collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In his review of the prints, the British critic and etching advocate, Philip Gilbert Hamerton, declared this work "one of the most powerful plates in the series, the execution being full of audacity and rude vigor." Proponents of the etching revival in the nineteenth century touted the suitability of the medium for interpreting painterly styles and the vigorous brushwork of Hals provided a good test case.

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