Drapery Study for "Battledore" (recto); Two Women (verso)

Albert Joseph Moore

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This sensitive study of artfully arranged semi-translucent drapery hanging over a line relates to Moore's painting "Battledore" (1868–70, Minneapolis Institute of Art). In the latter, a similar cloth forms a backdrop for a young woman dressed in classical robes as she holds a racket ahd shuttlecock (battledore is an old name for badminton). The artist was a leader of the Aesthetic Movement whose proponents believed subject matter to be less important than beautifully arranged forms and harmonious colors. When preparing a composition, Moore made studies of figures, draperies and details which reveal how his ideas developed. His choice of rough brown paper to serve a support for studies was taken up by James McNeill Whistler who used it for pastel drawings.

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