The Widower

James Tissot

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The pensive and forlorn gazes of the widower and child heighten the mournful quality of this print, made after a painting of the same title in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Although the father holds his daughter aloft to reach a small fruit or nut, neither focus on the task at hand but rather stare vaguely into space, absorbed in their own thoughts, a subtle change from the painted version. In composition as well as theme, this work relates closely to the etching "Orphan" (65.594.1). The somber subjects of these works contrast with how Tissot typically used the private garden setting for scenes of leisure.

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