Interior of a Dutch Kitchen, after Willem Kalf

Interior of a Dutch Kitchen, after Willem Kalf

Jules-Ferdinand Jacquemart

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The murky darkness of Kalf’s "Interior of a Kitchen" (71.69) posed a challenge to Jacquemart, who made this etching after it for a portfolio of prints celebrating the founding collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In his review of the plate, the British critic Philip Gilbert Hamerton called it "one of the cleverest in the whole set" and noted the care the etcher had taken to "make things clear just to the degree which the painter intended, and no further." Today the print reveals more of the composition than is visible in the painting, which has likely darkened over time.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Interior of a Dutch Kitchen, after Willem KalfInterior of a Dutch Kitchen, after Willem KalfInterior of a Dutch Kitchen, after Willem KalfInterior of a Dutch Kitchen, after Willem KalfInterior of a Dutch Kitchen, after Willem Kalf

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.