Purple paste paper with curved line and crisscross design
19th century
Medium
Relief print (wood or metal)
Dimensions
Sheet: 3 3/4 × 6 7/16 in. (9.5 × 16.4 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1940
Accession Number
40.21.110
Art Historical Context
Welcome to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, where this charming 19th-century gem awaits: *Purple Paste Paper with Curved Line and Crisscross Design*. Created anonymously using a relief print technique—likely from wood or metal—this petite sheet measures just 3 3/4 × 6 7/16 inches, perfect for intimate appreciation. The vivid purple hue and intricate pattern of flowing curves interwoven with crisscrosses evoke the decorative whimsy of handmade papers prized during the era. Paste papers like this one emerged in Europe as an affordable yet artistic medium, primari...
About the Artist
Anonymous
In the vast tapestry of art history, "Anonymous" stands not as a singular individual but as a collective designation for countless unidentified creators whose works have endured across millennia. These artists, spanning prehistoric cave painters to medieval illuminators and folk craftsmen, produced the foundational layers of human visual culture. Prior to the Renaissance, when individual fame emer...