The Royal Academy of Arts

Richard Earlom

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A number of famous members of London’s Royal Academy are seen here before two nude models in a life studio. Sir Joshua Reynolds stands in the center with his ear trumpet, Benjamin West is to the left, his left arm leaning on a long desk, and a visiting artist from China can be seen in the left background. The two female academicians, Angelica Kauffmann and Mary Moser, are represented in paintings on the wall at right, since it was regarded as unseemly for them to work from live male models. Zoffany—who created the painting on which this print is based—holds a palette in the lower left corner. Earlom’s mezzotint faithfully reproduces the painting, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1772 and subsequently sold to King George III.

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