Storm Over A Lake

Joseph Barber

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

When this watercolor was acquired in 1907, it was thought to be by John Robert Cozens. Recently, similarities to works by Joseph Barber at the Victoria and Albert Museum led to its reattribution. Influenced by Cozen's distinctive, and admired, watercolor technique, Barber became Birmingham's first drawing master and taught David Cox. He is known to have traveled in Wales, a likely locale for this mountain lake.

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