Drawing the Eel is a mid 17th century painting by Dutch artist Salomon van Ruysdael. Done in oil on wood, the painting depicts a traditional Dutch festival pastime of palingtrekken, translatable to "Eel pulling" or "Eel drawing". Van Ruysdael's work is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and is considered historian Walter Liedtke to be "One of the finest paintings acquired by the Museum in its founding".