Study of a man pushing a plow
ca. 1870
Medium
Pen and black ink
Dimensions
sheet: 5-7/8 x 4-1/8
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Dana Broccoli, 1978
Accession Number
1978.655.4
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate pen-and-ink drawing by Belgian artist Félicien Rops captures a solitary figure leaning into the handles of a plow, his body bent with effort as he works the earth. Created around 1870, the small sheet—just under six inches wide—offers an intimate glimpse of rural labor. Rops, working in the late nineteenth century, used the directness of black ink to record the man’s posture and the simple geometry of the plow with quick, confident strokes. As a “study,” the work likely served as a preparatory sketch, allowing the artist to explore movement and form before developing a larger co...
About the Artist
Félicien Rops · 1833–1898
Félicien Rops, born Félicien Victor Joseph Rops on July 7, 1833, in Namur, Belgium, to a prosperous textile manufacturing family, displayed prodigious artistic talent from youth. The only child of Nicholas Rops and Sophie Maubile, he received private tutoring until age ten, followed by education at a Jesuit school in Namur (1843–1848), the Athénée Royal de Namur, and the Academy of Fine Arts there...