Young Man and Old Woman
n.d.
Medium
Pen and brown ink; framing lines in pen and brown ink
Dimensions
sheet: 6 1/2 x 6 3/8 in. (16.5 x 16.2 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Van Day Truex Fund, Susan H. Seidel Gift, and The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 2005
Accession Number
2005.224
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
About this artwork
Jacob Matham's "Young Man and Old Woman" demonstrates the artist's command of Dutch Mannerist graphic tradition inherited from his stepfather and teacher, Hendrick Goltzius. Matham (1571-1631) entered Goltzius's Haarlem workshop at age ten, becoming one of the Dutch Golden Age's most prolific engravers. This drawing falls within his mature period when he had absorbed Goltzius's virtuosic pen technique while developing his broader approach. Contrasting ages was a popular moralizing theme in Dutch...
Art Historical Context
Jacob Matham’s “Young Man and Old Woman” captures a moment of intimate exchange between figures of contrasting ages, rendered in delicate pen and brown ink. Created in the Dutch Golden Age, the drawing reflects Matham’s mature style, shaped by his training under Hendrick Goltzius, his stepfather and mentor. Having joined Goltzius’s Haarlem workshop at just ten years old, Matham absorbed the virtuosic techniques of Dutch Mannerism while developing a broader, more fluid approach of his own. The careful framing lines suggest this sheet was likely prepared as a design for an engraving, a medium in which Matham became one of the period’s most prolific practitioners. The subject of youth paired with age was a popular moralizing theme in Dutch art, often serving as a reminder of life’s fleeting nature or a gentle caution against mismatched unions. After Goltzius stepped away from printmaking around 1600, Matham carried forward the Haarlem tradition, producing reproductive engravings after both Northern and Italian masters that helped spread artistic ideas across Europe. Acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2005, the drawing offers a quiet window into early seventeenth-century concerns with time, beauty, and human connection.
About the Artist
Jacob Matham · 1571–1631
**Jacob Matham: Master Engraver of Haarlem** Jacob Matham was born on October 15, 1571, in Haarlem, in the Northern Netherlands, into a burgeoning artistic milieu. Following his father's early death, his mother married the renowned painter and engraver Hendrick Goltzius in 1579, who adopted the young Jacob and trained him rigorously in the workshop as his stepson and pupil. Matham's first signed ...