Putto Study, for the lid of the Graham Family Piano

Putto Study, for the lid of the Graham Family Piano

Sir Edward Burne-Jones

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Burne-Jones's dynamic sketch of a naked child who bends to look under a vine while singing or shouting relates to a decorated piano lid that shows Mother Earth (Terra Omniparens) surrounded by vines and twenty-one children. The 1879 commission came from William Graham, a Scottish merchant and politician who presented the piano to his daughter Frances on her twenty-first birthday. In the related painting, naughty putti are characterized as miniature satyrs with pointed forelocks and tiny horns. The child shown here, however, seems instread to embody youthful energy, with wide open eyes and mouth (on the piano lid, Burne-Jones adapted the figure, closed the mouth and hid the eyes behind the vine). Only a few studies survive for this project and this example stands out for its spontaneity.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Putto Study, for the lid of the Graham Family PianoPutto Study, for the lid of the Graham Family PianoPutto Study, for the lid of the Graham Family PianoPutto Study, for the lid of the Graham Family PianoPutto Study, for the lid of the Graham Family Piano

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.