The Anchorite: a partially naked man seated at left in a landscape with what appears to be a long sheet unfolded over his knees
ca. 1869
Medium
Etching and aquatint on Japan paper
Dimensions
Sheet: 15 15/16 × 21 5/8 in. (40.5 × 55 cm) Plate: 14 11/16 × 19 7/8 in. (37.3 × 50.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Junius S. Morgan, 1923
Accession Number
23.106.7
Tags
Art Historical Context
Mariano Fortuny’s *The Anchorite* (ca. 1869) presents a solitary, partially draped male figure seated in a rugged landscape, his form illuminated against the open expanse. An anchorite—a Christian hermit devoted to prayer and seclusion—the subject reflects the nineteenth-century fascination with spiritual isolation and the romantic ideal of nature as a place of contemplation. Fortuny, a celebrated Spanish painter and printmaker, brought his virtuoso draftsmanship to this intimate scene, capturing both the vulnerability of the human body and the vastness of the surrounding terrain. Executed in...
About the Artist
Mariano Fortuny, 1838–1874 (Spanish) · 1838 –1874
Spanish, 1838–1874