Seated Woman Holding a Fan
1907
Medium
Drypoint
Dimensions
21 7/8 × 16 5/8 in. (55.6 × 42.2 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Modern and Contemporary Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Lydia Winston Malbin, 1989
Accession Number
1990.38.35
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Seated Woman Holding a** (1907) is an exquisite drypoint print by Umberto Boccioni, the artist who would later pioneer Futurism. Created when Boccioni was just 25, this early work captures a poised woman seated gracefully with a fan, rendered in soft, velvety lines characteristic of the medium. Measuring 21 7/8 × 16 5/8 inches, it exemplifies his precocious talent in printmaking before his revolutionary experiments with movement and dynamism. Drypoint involves scratching directly into a metal plate with a needle, raising a burr that holds ink and produces rich, textured effects—ideal for in...
About the Artist
Umberto Boccioni · 1882–1916
Umberto Boccioni (1882–1916) was an Italian painter and sculptor who became the leading artist and principal theorist of the Futurist movement. Born in Reggio Calabria, he studied in Rome under the Divisionist painter Giacomo Balla and was deeply influenced by Post-Impressionism before encountering the ideas of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, whose 1909 Futurist Manifesto catalyzed Boccioni's artistic ...