James McNeill Whistler

James McNeill Whistler

Paul Adolphe Rajon

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This print reproduces a chalk portrait sketch by Rajon. Whistler hung the the original on the wall of his studio at 454 Fulham Road where it was seen by Malcolm Salaman and mentioned in the Court and Society Review, 1 July 1886; the drawing is now at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

James McNeill WhistlerJames McNeill WhistlerJames McNeill WhistlerJames McNeill WhistlerJames McNeill Whistler

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.