Study of Rocks
John William Casilear
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Casilear probably made this drawing during one of his sketching trips through the White Mountains. The practice of drawing from nature was advocated by the British critic John Ruskin, whose writings were popular in the English-speaking world. Although Casilear’s drawings of rocks were ultimately inspired by Ruskin’s emphasis on the beauty and visual interest of geological formations, two of the rocky outcroppings on this sheet recall illustrations by James Duffield Harding, a British artist whose drawing books were advertised in “The Crayon” in the 1850s. Casilear was undoubtedly familiar with the writings of his friend, the landscape painter Asher B. Durand, who recommended that students devote themselves to drawing simple objects such as “a fragment of rock, or trunk of a tree.”
The American Wing
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.