The Power of Portraiture: Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints

Considered a precursor to the German Romanticists, Nathe composed this drawing to immerse the viewer in a dramatic landscape. The trees extend above the upper edge of the paper and the low vantage point affords only the slightest view of the top of the ravine, creating a feeling of solitude. The vertical format of the sheet emphasizes the downward rush of water.

Schirmer, a specialist in mountainous landscape views, made this drawing during one of his early trips to Switzerland. Alpine peaks rise in the distance and pine trees—rendered with short zigzagging strokes—spread over the shadowy hills at left. In the foreground, a deft combination of ink, watercolor, and bare paper depicts the textured surface of the sunlit rockface and the visual effect of cascading water. At center, a tiny figure scales the steep slope while deer graze above, conveying the majestic scale of this environment.

Tight, precise pen strokes fill the sheet, forming a lush array of vegetation. In 1852 Königsbrunn traveled with two biologists to Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, to study the island’s flora. During their ten-month stay, the artist produced drawings that he later developed into intricate compositions like this one, reproduced as an engraving in 1865. By this time, some of Ceylon’s tropical forests had been exploited for ebony and cleared for coffee plantations, a result of European colonial rule.

Subtle gradations in tone, created with washes of varying densities and the skillful use of untouched paper, result in a compelling sense of spatial recession and a brilliant luminosity. Although lesser known than his older brother Ferdinand and nephew Wilhelm, Franz Kobell enjoyed a prosperous career in Munich, producing several views of the wooded mountains of Bavaria.

Rapid strokes of pen and brush capture swaying trees and rustling leaves. Touches of yellow suggest the movement of golden light—perhaps that of the late afternoon sun. The cows in the distance inject a slightly disorienting sense of scale that suggests some warping of space or simply reflects the artist’s attempt to keep up with the frolicking creatures. Wagner frequently went into the woodlands of Germany to draw from direct observation, inscribing many of his sheets, as here, with the precise date and place of execution.

High in the mountains two hunters converse beneath a canopy of sundrenched leaves, while a third man climbs stairs that have been carved into the rockface. Contrasting with the warm brown tones of this human-altered landscape are the cool blues of the surrounding sky and distant hills, which effectively convey the figures’ altitude and imply, rather than show, the airy expanse around them.

In this rapidly drawn sheet, von Lichtenfels, a landscape specialist who taught the genre at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, renders a riverscape as a dazzling pattern of line, color, and light. Gray shadows contrast with the warm tones of yellow and orange. Rather than apply pigment to the river, the artist focuses on the shadows cast on and by the rocks that breach its surface. In an inscription a previous owner identified this view as a site near the town of Kronau in southwestern Germany.

Water trickles through a heap of rocks and broken tree branches, collecting into a small puddle at left. Bold brushwork in vivid tones of blue, violet, and green evoke the cool surfaces of stone and moss, while a few strokes of white create the sensation of brilliant light filtering through the surrounding trees at top. Born into a Jewish family in Hungary—the cultural identity the artist elected throughout his life—Hirémy-Hirschl trained and began his career in Vienna before settling in Rome in about 1900. Although best known as a history painter, he earned critical success for his landscapes, bringing to them his talent for observing light and shadow and for rendering almost touchable forms.

This sheet exhibits a remarkably free and expressive use of watercolor to capture a wooded landscape animated by wind and shifting light. Applied wet-on-wet, the colors bleed together, suggesting a murky tangle of damp foliage and brush from which rises a twisting tree, its branches spiraling upward. At lower left, blades of grass are reflected in the glassy surface of a brook. Trained in Hamburg, Nerly spent almost his entire career in Italy. This sheet probably dates from his early years in Germany or his time in Rome, before he settled in Venice in 1837.

The Book of Tobit, a Jewish work from the 3rd or early 2nd century b.c., does not offer any descriptive details about the Tigris River landscape in which Tobias journeys and finds the fish that will cure his father’s blindness. Nevertheless, Meyer set the scene within lush woods, portraying Tobias and his angelic companion as tiny figures within the verdant landscape.

This drawing depicts the ancient Greco-Roman myth in which the hunter Actaeon stumbles upon the goddess Diana’s secret grove and sees her bathing with her nymphs. In anger, Diana transforms the mortal man into a stag so that he will be killed by his own hunting dogs. Pecham situates the characters amidst overgrown ruins, concentrating his attention on the way light filters through the tall, leafy trees and casts delicate shadows on the figures’ fleshy bodies.

Richter's life-long interest in medieval legend is evident in this delicately detailed watercolor that depicts Genoveva of Brabant, wife of the 13th century count palatine, Siegfried of Treves (now Trier in the German Rhineland). While her husband was away at war, she was falsely accused of adultery and condemned to death. Spared by the executioner, she fled to the forest of Ardennes in France, and lived with her son in a cave for six years, fed by a female deer. Based on a large etching Richter made some thirty years earlier, in 1848, this image uses delicately controlled color to suggest a forest idyll in which animals nurture and protect two wronged innocents.

Making an unusual choice, the Olivier brothers set the Greek origin story of the art of drawing in the woods, rather than in an interior. The inventor traces the shadow of her beloved on a rock, the secluded, natural setting heightening the romantic tenor of the scene.

A ghostly female figure walks—or floats—in a trance-like state. The long ends of her headscarf billow as if moved by a mysterious breeze, while strange forms emerge from the darkness and hover around her. Redon produced various states of this print, transforming his initial depiction of an episode from Faust, a play by the German poet Goethe, into the enigmatic scene we see here. Only in this final state did the artist render the background pitch black, heightening the ominous character of the image.

To appreciate the complex symbolism and rich details of the world of witches represented in this print close examination is needed. In the centre three witches prepare ointments that they will smear over their bodies enabling them to fly. The book before them presumably contains the recipe they need for their concoction. At the right another witch riding a broomstick fuelled by the vapors from a cauldron is being dragged by the hair by a demon. In the upper left, witches clutch bolts of fire, a reference to their power to wreak havoc by creating storms of hail and lightning to ruin crops. Below to the left, Cupid seems to be struggling with a winged demon. This has been understood as a battle between the perverse loves of witches and the pure love of Cupid. Many other details throughout the composition add to our enjoyment of it.

During the time this print was made many people believed in the reality of witches and their activities. We do not know for certain the attitude of Jacques de Gheyn who designed the print but there is some evidence to think he was a skeptic and regarded subjects of witchcraft with bemusement.

One of Delacroix's most striking prints, "Macbeth Consulting the Witches" owes its dynamic technique to the lithographs of Goya, whose monumental bullfight scenes had just been published in Bordeaux. Datable to 1825, this is probably Delacroix's first important work inspired by Shakespeare. An impression hand-colored in oils by the artist exists, suggesting that he was considering a related painting. The subject occurs in act 4, scene 1, where Macbeth meets the three witches for a second time to ask them about his future.

The motif of a woman sewing, knitting, or, as here, operating a spinning wheel was especially popular in nineteenth-century France, where Realist artists like Bonvin produced images that both exposed and aestheticized the arduous lives of working- and lower middle-class people. Here, Bonvin carefully applied charcoal to model the figure’s face, hands, and costume and to suggest light flooding into the spare interior. Reducing the setting to the bare minimum, he concentrates our attention on the woman and her own absorption in her work.

This luminous image of a woman ironing is one of tens of thousands of prints published in the 1930s and 1940s by the Works Progress Administration (WPA, also called the Work Projects Administration), an agency operated by the United States government to provide widespread work relief during the Great Depression. Like many other artists employed by the WPA’s Federal Art Project, New York printmaker Tanzer produced images that depict Americans at work—both inside and outside of the home. Whether the woman portrayed here is taking care of her own household or that of an employer, her quiet concentration on her task reflects the print’s immediate context as well as the longer visual tradition around women engaged in domestic work.

This landscape features women washing laundry along the river’s edge. Stark contrasts of black and white set off the soft, tonal area that represents the reflective surface of the water. An artist, writer, and former Met staff member, Andrus made this lithograph during a trip to Tulle in central France.

Child labor was common in turn-of-the-century Paris. In this depiction of a young laundress, Bonnard’s characteristic flattening of perspective and form heightens the awkwardness of the girl’s body as she hauls the heavy basket through the streets.

Layered textures, tones, patterns, and the incorporation of a variety of techniques testify to Amos’s innovative approach to artmaking. In both prints and paintings, Amos used technical as well as compositional means to, in her words, "provoke more thoughtful ways of thinking and seeing." Often using herself as a model, she regularly depicted Black women as confident and powerful, even while navigating treacherous conditions that resulted from societal prejudice. Here, a self-possessed and contemplative woman is shown with her body positioned toward the viewer. Amos repeats shapes, such as the curving forms, to link various sections across the composition. Decorative patterns contrast with areas of solid color, a reference to the artist’s weaving and fabric design skills.

Catlett drew on the formal vocabularies of Cubism and Mexican muralism in works that engage social-justice issues. "Sharecropper" is a powerful portrait of an anonymous woman that calls attention to the hardships experienced by tenant farmers of the American South, who were required to pay for the land they rented with part of their crop and thus often faced lifelong debt. Catlett was deeply invested in the democratic potential of printmaking and was particularly drawn to techniques like the linoleum cut that were inexpensive to produce and could generate large editions. She created "Sharecropper" at the Taller de Gráfica Popular (People’s Graphic Workshop) in Mexico City, which was dedicated to the production of socially engaged prints."

In Lovey Twice, Catlett combines abstraction and figuration to create one of her most enigmatic prints. The lithograph is dominated by a detailed portrait of a woman shown both head-on and from the side. In contrast, the background and bottom sections contain a texturally intricate abstract composition. Catlett created this effect by applying oil- and water-based materials to the stone surface before drawing the image. This technique frames the print, further calling attention to the woman’s face. Catlett saw her art—primarily prints and sculpture—as a means to inspire and inform people. Early in her career she decided to focus largely on Black women, who she felt had been neglected in art or, if depicted, shown through negative archetypes.

Everyday objects, such as steam irons and ironing boards, act as both the subject and the material in Cole’s art. There, these household goods have a range of associations including slave ships, African art, domestic labor, and the found objects of the Dada and Surrealist art movements. In Man, the left panel, a manipulated, black-and-white photograph of Cole’s face is overlaid with the embossed outline and scarification-like markings of a steam iron. In Spirit (center), an iron’s base is rendered in brown tones and with blurred edges, referencing a scorched surface as well as the markings on Cole’s photograph of his face. At right, a bird’s-eye view of an antique dry iron with a wooden handle resembles an African mask placed over an upside-down version of Cole’s portrait.

To create Five Beauties Rising, Cole scratched, dented, and hammered vintage ironing boards, which he then inked and ran through an etching press. The process revealed the shapes of structures that are normally hidden, like struts, along with impressions of the boards’ outlines and scars. The size, vertical orientation, and arched forms evoke windows from Gothic cathedrals, reliquaries, tombstones, slave ships, shields, and X-rays. At the bottom of each work is a woman’s name printed in relief. These titles refer to Cole’s ancestors who were domestic workers, as well as to the town of Savannah, Georgia, where many of the women were born. When viewed in connection with the names, the impressions of the boards take on a personal connection, acting as an homage to these women and others whose labor remains largely unacknowledged.

In this untitled print, Diuguid evokes the American artist Wanda Ewing (1970–2013). Ewing, who worked across printmaking, sculpture, painting, collage, and fiber art, focused on the frequent absence of Black women from art history. Diuguid references Ewing’s use of bold colors, patterns, and black-and-white "pin-up" forms pulled from popular culture, as well as her provocation, humor, and confrontation of stereotypes. The bright tones also have meaning for Diuguid, who views color as the "gateway to our emotional language of experience." The work has a personal connection too; the decorative tulip pattern shown in the background was based on a wallpaper the two artists discovered while thrifting together in Omaha, Nebraska. Diuguid now keeps the wallpaper in her studio.

The titular figure, Margaret Taylor Burroughs (1915–2010), was an artist and founder of the DuSable Black History Museum in Chicago. Her art reflected her social activism and belief in the importance of art "to record the times." Burroughs was best known for her linocuts, a technique embraced for its democratic potential. Using subject, technique, and title, Hobbs pays homage to Burroughs and her 1956 print Mother Africa. Hobbs practices woodcutting, a relief printing method related to linocut. Here, it allows for similar visual qualities across the two artists’ works. The act of creating a woodcut was important for Hobbs, who claimed that the carving a wooden block to create an image was "synonymous with the way one has to cut away negative ideologies imposed on them by others to expose or embrace their true selves."

In this print, Mack-Watkins, a mother and an educator, visualizes Black babies’ time in the womb and contemplates their futures on earth. Babies tumble through a space filled with text, targets, and mathematical formulas. Nebulas evoke creation and stars symbolize mortality, while other visuals refer to positive childhood experiences, such as creative expression and education, as well as negative elements, like the inequities and mistreatment the children may encounter. The artist Betye Saar (born 1926) acted as inspiration for Mack-Watkins here. The influence of Saar’s art, especially her 1990 print Return to Dreamtime, is formalized through Future Undetermined’s vivid blue background, visual elements, and use of symbolism.

Martin layers colors, patterns, symbols, and techniques to create art that fuses, what she terms, "the real and the fantastic." Here, Martin pays homage to Elizabeth Catlett, an artist and printmaker known for her championing of social justice and positive representations of Black women. Martin combines linocut, a relief print method frequently used by Catlett, with hand stitching and decorative patterns. According to Martin, her subject represents the quiet strength and "natural beauty, cultural identity, and the complexity of the African American Woman." Behind the figure, a large circular form rendered in a purple floral pattern evokes the moon and its association with women and their spiritual life.

The prints in Continuum were created by seven members and former members of Black Women of Print—Leslie Diuguid, LaToya M. Hobbs, Jennifer Mack-Watkins, Delita Martin, Angela Pilgrim, Stephanie Santana, and Tanekeya Word—to mark the one-year anniversary of the collective. Word, who founded Black Women of Print and curated the portfolio, envisioned creating a more equitable future within the discipline of printmaking. In addition to providing support to and advancing work by contemporary Black women printmakers, the collective promotes the history and work of Black women artists from earlier generations. The prints in Continuum honor and engage the legacy of Emma Amos, Belkis Ayón, Margaret Taylor Burroughs, Elizabeth Catlett, Wanda Ewing, Alison Saar, and Betye Saar through multiple means, including visual elements, subjects, and techniques. Several of these artists also make reference to relatives and children in their prints, emphasizing connection between generations.

In Tenderheaded & Heavyhanded, Pilgrim refers to the painter, printmaker, and fabric artist Emma Amos. Pilgrim collages strips of patterned paper to create a decorative border that recalls the African fabric Amos used in several pieces, such as her 2012 work Memory. Amos, the youngest and only female member of the Black artists’ group Spiral, focused on creating positive depictions of Black women—often through self-portraits. Pilgrim shares Amos’s interest in representing the identities and everyday experiences of Black women in America. Here, she combines images that recall pop culture from the 1970s to celebrate the beauty and strength of natural hair. Pilgrim contrasts the different meanings and actions involved in tenderness, sensitivity, and care, with elements of force, strength, and toxicity.

Santana is a textile artist as well as a printmaker. In her work, she combines these practices and incorporates archival materials such as photographs and old documents to reference celebrated artists like the Cuban printmaker Belkis Ayón (1967–1999). Santana was drawn to Ayón’s use of collagraphy and the various textural effects associated with the technique. Here, Santana uses a picture from the 1950s of two girls, the artist’s mother and aunt, shown laughing. Behind them are their silhouettes, evoking the shadow of influence the young girls would later cast. By showing links with family and history, Santana creates what she described as "a dialogue between past and present with images of loved ones."

In Backdrops, Circa 1940, Simpson combines the image of an anonymous woman balancing on a crescent moon with a cropped picture of singer and activist Lena Horne from the set of the 1943 movie I Dood It. Because of racist regulations, Horne’s musical scenes were cut from the version of the film sent to Southern venues, an affront Simpson alludes to by positioning the photograph at the edge of the sheet. However, by showing Horne’s image enlarged and paired with that of the anonymous woman, Simpson imagines an alternative history where Horne is singing and celebrated. Text below the images indicates that they both date to the 1940s, allowing the artist to contrast their sense of nostalgia and glamor with the brutal history of the decade.

As an artist dedicated to promoting civil rights, White gravitated to printmaking early in his career for its technical and visual accessibility. When White began making metal etchings, he excelled at the technique, producing images of Black Americans with the same sensitivity and detail as seen in his drawings. Here, White shows a young boy in profile, his eyes raised toward the sky. The artist surrounds the boy’s delicate features with an abstract thicket of lines. By altering tones, as well as the depth, length, and thickness of lines, White creates contrasting outlines and dramatic lighting.

White began making etchings while living in Los Angeles in the late 1960s. He was attracted to the technique as it allowed him to create prints with the same delicacy as his drawings. Here, White portrays a young boy peering over the top of a wall, with only his head and the tips of his fingers visible. The spare composition allows the viewer to focus on the child’s emotions and his penetrating gaze. White used crosshatching to produce the background’s dramatic lighting and minimal, yet textured, surface. The print, like many of his late works, possesses a quiet power, while the title recalls biblical associations.

White believed in creating representational art that would connect with the public as well as advocate for racial, economic, and social justice. Active for several decades, White had a profound influence on generations of artists and students. His art consistently reflected his mission to create positive images of Black Americans. He depicted both celebrated people, such as the social reformer Frederick Douglass, and anonymous figures. Childhood was a reoccurring motif in White’s work. Here, White shows the head and shoulders of a young girl, who turns her face to look off the edge of the sheet. While generally a realistic work, the image incorporates elements of abstraction like the deeply textured crosshatching in the girl’s hair.

Printmaking was a vital part of White’s career. He created socially engaged lithographs as early as 1939 for the Works Progress Administration in Chicago. In 1946, White accompanied his wife, the artist Elizabeth Catlett, to Mexico City. There, they worked at the celebrated and politically progressive printshop El Taller de Gráfica Popular (the People’s Graphic Workshop). White left Mexico in 1949, and while his style moved away from angular and geometric forms, he continued to make lithographs that focused on themes of racial and social justice. Here in this dreamlike image, White divides the composition into two sections: a sensitive portrait of a child lying in bed, and below, a realistic image of a bird shown against abstract patterns.

In Starshine & Clay, Word engages the history and work of American sculptor Alison Saar (born 1956) to call attention to Black artistic and matriarchal lineages. Word writes Saar was "birthed from the creative lioness Betye Saar, I, too, was birthed by a creative lioness and am a creative lioness who is a mother." Word, the founder of Black Women of Print and curator of Continuum, creates work that centers Black women and girls. Here, a regal figure is framed by circular orange and gold forms that recall the sun, haloes, and mystical spaces. The title derives from Lucille Clifton’s 1993 poem "won’t you celebrate with me" and the poet’s references to Black women’s power and resilience in the face of racial and gender inequalities.

Wilson creates art that reveals the power of institutions, such as museums, through the histories they tell and those they omit. Working in a variety of mediums, he explores how these choices reflect social and economic class, as well as perpetuate racial, sexual, and cultural narratives and biases. In X, Wilson combines an image of the activist Malcolm X, based on Marion　S. Trikosko’s 1964 photograph of him at a press conference on civil rights given by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the U.S. Capitol, with the divisive 1883–84 portrait of the Parisian-based socialite Madame Pierre Gautreau by John Singer Sargent (a work popularly known as Madame X, on view at The Met). Despite facing opposite directions, the figures share the same space and seem to engage in a dialogue.

Working across mediums and formats, Wilson sought to portray the humanity of his subjects and promote social justice. Here, Wilson depicts the American civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at a more intimate angle than he was often shown in photographs. Wilson directs attention to King’s facial features, in particular, his deep, penetrating eyes. The artist emphasized King’s outline against a spare background, creating a halo effect that contrasts with his humble pose. A horizontal line divides the composition and, working in tandem with the vertical line that runs down the center of his body, produces the form　of a cross, evoking both King’s work as a minister and addressing his assassination. Wilson created numerous works that depicted King, including a bronze bust commissioned for the U.S. Capitol.

This is the first of a group comprising seventeen sheets of thirty-five hand-coloured engravings depicting the cries (trades) of Rome. The series was produced in Bassano (Veneto, Italy) by the Remondini publishing firm for the Spanish market. The first sheet carries the title in Spanish, whereas the descriptions of each of the 198 figures and their occupations in Italian (Roman dialect ‘Romancino’), run along the bottom of each plate. The figures are copied from a 1582 engraving by Ambrogio Brambilla published by Claudio Duchetti: ‘Ritratto de quelli che vanno vendendo et lavorando per Roma con la nova agionta de tutti quelli che nelle altre mancavano sin al presente’. The Remondini group comprises more than one series of works. Plates are numbered 1 through 12 (forming the first group), and there is an additional group that, with the exception of a couple of sheets, are not numbered. The first group of prints is listed in the 1791 Remondini stocklist (no. 639): ‘Una pontada di 12 rami di francesina rappresentanti le differenti arti di Roma’.

See: Alberto Milano, ‘Colporteurs. I venditori di stampe e libri e il loro pubblico’, Milan, Edizioni Medusa, 2015, pp. 26–31 and cat.no. 15, pp. 151–53. 　

Maria Beatrice Sirolesi, ‘I venditori ambulanti di Roma. I mercanti girovaghi del Seicento con le curiose grida de richiamo nelle incisioni del Remondini’, Rome, Edizioni della Città, 1994.

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The first in a group of eighteen hand-coloured engravings with a total of 72 figures representing the cries (trades/street vendors) of Madrid. Their occupations are many, and include everything from fish mongers, fruit and sweet vendors to those selling household items (chairs, pots, matts etc). This set is the first edition before each sheet was cut into four and the figures individually numbered and enclosed within a border. Each figure in the present set is accompanied by a title pertaining to their occupation. The set is notable for its delicate hand colouring. Images of cries were immensely popular from the sixteenth century, especially in Italy and France. In Spain few are known, and this group is of particular interest, for, in addition to identifying the trade, the phonetic rending of their cry they issued to attract customers is sometimes provided, presumably because it was so recognizable.




See: Miguel Gamborino, ‘Los Gritos de Madrid. Colección de setenta y dos grabados de Maigues Gamborino’, texts by José Antonio Calvo Torija and Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Madrid 1997 (facsimile edition of second edition).

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