GCA Blog: Copying at the Met

Last week, about a dozen advanced students from the core program had the chance to study and copy directly from the paintings and sculptures on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was a fantastic opportunity to get up close and personal with several of the finest works of art spanning from Antiquity right up to the 19th century Hudson River School.

Niki Covington copying
"Alpheus and Arethusa", Battista Lorenzi

Jessica Artman copying
"The Vine", Harriet Whitney Frishmuth

Patrick Byrnes copying
"Portrait of a Young Man", Bronzino

Anthony Baus copying,
"Saint Nicolas of Tolentino Reviving a Child", Garofalo

Zoe Dufour copying
a marble relief of a horseman

Charlie Mostow copying
a bronze statuette of a youth dancing

Will Jones copying
"Study of Two Heads", Rubens

Sarah Bird copying
"Julius Angerstein", Lawrence

Connor de Jong copying
"The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak", Bierstadt

Abigail Tulis copying
"The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche", Schiavone

Michelle Palatnik copying
"Self-Portrait", Rembrandt

Every day for five days, we arrived at the Met Copyist Department, picked up our respective paintings and easels, and made our way through the halls to whichever masterpiece we had chosen. Painting in a museum like the Met, where the foot traffic is immense (consisting of people from all across the world) is quite an experience in itself. Several of the copyists found themselves within the center of literal mobs of people, while others managed to hide away in the smaller wings. Regardless, the experience was overwhelmingly positive and educational - the opportunity to so closely examine and reconstruct directly from the original paintings opened new levels of understanding into the methods and considerations of each copyist's respective painting.