The Altar of Baal

Harry Fenn

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fenn created this image to illustrate an article titled "A Photographer's First Visit to Petra," published in "Century Magazine," November 1885. Born in Britain, and trained as a wood engraver who worked for the Dalziel Brothers, Fenn visited the United States in 1857 and decided to settle in New York. After studying painting and drawing, he became a prominent New York illustrator known for his landscape imagery. His success with the lavishly illustrated "Picturesque America," published by D. Appleton’s (1870–72) was followed by "Picturesque Europe" (1875–79), and "Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt" (1881–84). The present image relates to the latter book and also reflects Fenn's prolific work during his latter decades for periodicals such as "Century Magazine," "Harper’s Weekly," "Harper’s Monthly" and "Scribner’s."

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