Portrait of George Graham

Thomas Hudson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In Hudson's busy studio, normally made preparatory designs for portraits, so few drawings by the artist survive. This engaging study relates to a painting of a leading clock and scientific instrument maker now at Sirburn Castle, part of the collection of the Earl of Macclesfield. The finished work shows a chair, table, and pendulum clock, and likely was commissioned around 1739, when Graham supplied scientific instruments to George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield. Around 1740, a mezzotint based on the painting was engraved by Thomas Ryley.

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