The Wild Man
1649
Medium
Pen and black and white ink, brush and brown wash, heightened with white gouache, over traces of graphite.
Dimensions
sheet: 15 13/16 x 9 1/2 in. (40.1 x 24.1 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Van Day Truex Fund, 2006
Accession Number
2006.481
Tags
Art Historical Context
Created in 1649 Conrad Meyer’s “The Man” showcases the draftsmanship of seventeenth-century European artists. Executed in pen and black-and-white ink with brush-applied brown wash and touches of white gouache over faint graphite, the drawing demonstrates how layered media could produce rich tonal contrasts and luminous highlights on paper. At roughly sixteen by nine-and-a-half inches, the sheet’s vertical format emphasizes the solitary figure, inviting close inspection of every delicate stroke. The subject, identified simply through the tags “Men” and “Leaves,” evokes the age-old European ima...
About the Artist
Conrad Meyer · 1618–1689
Comment on works: Portraits; Figures; Landscapes