Trees Beside a Pond

Trees Beside a Pond

Louis-Antoine-Léon Riesener

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The light, airy, and informal quality of this watercolor makes evident why Riesener’s plein-air work is often considered a precursor to Impressionism. Riesener and his first cousin, the Romantic painter Eugène Delacroix, often sketched together outdoors during excursions to the country. In this view of a grove of slim trees near the edge of a pond, the artist freely worked up his initial graphite drawing. Applying watercolor loosely and spontaneously, he completely ignored the lines of his underdrawing in certain areas.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.