Shepherdess

J. J. Grandville

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Although the precise published illustration for which this drawing is preparatory has not yet been identified, this sheet gives tremendous insight into the working process of one of the preeminent illustrators of the nineteenth century. The marginal annotations convey Grandville's instructions to the artisan who would have transferred the drawing to a wood block to prepare a wood engraving. For instance, he notes the two sheep and the ground should be lower and the birds should be in smaller proportion.

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