Entry to the Village of Bains

Eugène Isabey

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is from the series of prints Eugène Isabey made for the 'Auvergne' chapter of the book 'Voyages pittoresques et romantiques dans l'ancienne France'. This particular plate was included in volume I of the series. The composition resembles that of a watercolor painted during the same period, with the same title, attributed to Isabey which is now in the Collection Destailleur held by the Bibliothèque Nationale.Curtis suggested in his catalogue raisonné of Eugène Isabey's work that the watercolor seems more likely to be by the artist's nephew, Eugène Cicéri, which would explain why Cicéri's name is included on this lithograph, implying a collaboration between the two artists.

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