Fraktur
ca. 1770–1800
Medium
Watercolor, pen and iron gall ink, and graphite on off-white laid paper
Dimensions
13 3/16 x 16 9/16 in. (33.5 x 42.1 cm)
Classification
Fraktur
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1966
Accession Number
66.242.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Fraktur by Johann Otto (ca. 1770–1800)** Step into the vibrant world of German folk art with this exquisite *Fraktur* by Johann Heinrich Otto, master scribe active in the late 18th century. around 1770–0, this American artwork from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's American Wing features bold watercolor motifs of parrots, peacocks, and flowers, rendered on off-white laid. Frakturs like this were cherished family documents—often birth or baptism certificates—blending European illuminated manuscript traditions with the exuberant creativity of immigrant communities in colonial Pennsylvania. Ot...