Foundry at Canon, Herefordshire

John Baptist Malchair

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Malchair traveled to Canon Bridge, Herefordshire, in July 1792 to make this atmospheric study of a working foundry (the location, date, and time are inscribed on the verso). Bold watercolor washes have been applied over freely sketched graphite lines to capture smoke and fire belching from a furnace at night, with buildings reflected in a bordering river. Born in Cologne, the artist had moved to Oxford in 1759 to work as a musician and drawing master. In the latter role he encouraged students to sketch from nature. The free execution of this work may have resulted, in part, from the artist’s worsening vision, but it also suggests admiration for the innovative watercolors of his contemporary John Robert Cozens.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art