Study of a young girl

Study of a young girl

Sir Godfrey Kneller

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Born in Lübeck, Kneller joined the army before deciding to pursue an artistic career. He trained in Amsterdam, traveled to Italy, and reached England around 1676. The recent death of Sir Peter Lely, England’s leading portraitist, opened an unanticipated path to success. By 1680, Kneller was Charles II’s court artist and held that position under successive monarchs while also operating a successful London portrait studio. His drawings are rarely found outside Britain, and this study of a young girl is uncharacteristically lively when compared to chalk studies that the artist routinely made in preparation for paintings. The subject’s expression conveys a distinct individuality, enhanced by loosely piled hair and bunched ribbons affixed to shoulder and bodice.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.