Self-portrait of Richard Parkes Bonington

Frédéric Villot

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Resting his head in his hand, a pose typically associated with melancholy, the young painter Bonington peers out from the shadows in this moody portrait based on a brown wash drawing dated 1825–26 (British Museum). Villot executed the print at the same time as one after an early portrait of his close friend Delacroix. The two portraits commemorate a time when these young leaders of the Romantic school worked in close proximity in a shared studio in Paris. Villot's use of the roulette tool produced rich black tones enhancing the chiaroscuro of the composition.

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