Landscape; a small island with two trees surrounded by water on the left; a tree by a cottage on the right

Landscape; a small island with two trees surrounded by water on the left; a tree by a cottage on the right

Carl Wilhelm Kolbe

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Kolbe was a prolific printmaker and draftsman. His primary subject was landscape. His works range from the expected to the surreal. Some of his etchings depict landscapes composed of enormous cabbage leaves with classical figures cavorting through the scene.This full landscape is a more traditional forest scene. Kolbe was no doubt inspired by precendents by seventeenth-century Dutch landscapists Anthonie Waterloo and Jacob Ruisdael that feature rugged landscapes with lively twisting and bending trees.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Landscape; a small island with two trees surrounded by water on the left; a tree by a cottage on the rightLandscape; a small island with two trees surrounded by water on the left; a tree by a cottage on the rightLandscape; a small island with two trees surrounded by water on the left; a tree by a cottage on the rightLandscape; a small island with two trees surrounded by water on the left; a tree by a cottage on the rightLandscape; a small island with two trees surrounded by water on the left; a tree by a cottage on the right

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.